Innocent eyes
by Envious sky
Summary: When Yuffie runs away from home she expects everything to finally be perfect, until an accident leaves her with nothing. With no where to go she takes up a job as a maid in the town of Nebelheim. But when she is faced with a despaired master, his twisted daughter and a disturbed maid, she realises that she has truly cast herself off into a hell on earth. AU
1. The runaway

**Yes beta this is M**

**(8,556 words, what the hell aren't prologues meant to be short?) Yeah I know This is the first chapter and I probably should be introducing myself and whatnot but screw all that, Imma tell you what happened a couple days ago. My friend was over, playing FFXIII, and I came downstairs and saw that the sound had stopped working, and the screen had freezed, yet the sub-titles kept going. It was funny.**

**And now to the story hah hah. Here's the first chapter of my new story 'Innocent eyes' brought to you by the lovely Serah Villiers Valentine. I just needed a olden day Vampire fic,and here's my attempt at one. I guess this is my Vincent torture fic, I always have a character that's being tortured, it's too fun not to. I'm sorry Vince I love you but you made it too easy.**

**I apologise in advance for randomly switching to Japanese, if it makes you feel better I've forgotten what most of it says as well, plus I got it from Google translate so if you do understand it may be a little incorrect . And also here's my apology for the part with the Vampy, I just started writing and it went too far, but I had fun so all's good. I feel like this chapter is 'lighter' in content on comparison to the rest of the story, read on to find out why that is so wrong.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own FF I just want to know if it's possible to legally be Vincent Valentine's wife.**

* * *

**Innocent eyes chapter 1: The run-away**

* * *

The tiny thief shoved the contents of the cupboard into a satchel hanging by a strap over her right shoulder. She and her accomplice had stayed a night in an elderly couple's home, pretending to be simple travellers. Before the sun had risen they had awoken and snuck down into their kitchen and lounge room; she stole food from their pantry while he stole expensive-looking items from in and around the rest of downstairs. They'd sell them later for what money they could get.

The thief finished digging out all the good food, proceeded to close her bag and, quiet as a shadow, left the house. Her companion had already left with his bags full to go retrieve their Chocobo. She ran a small hand through the short knotty length of her jet-black hair absent-mindedly, remembering that when she got the chance it'd be best for her to have a bath; she'd never been this dirty in her life. Of course not; she'd grown up in luxury.

She jumped off the creaking white porch and onto muddy ground which made squishing sounds under her bare feet. She dusted dirt off her stolen dress; she'd taken it from the first house they'd gone to since leaving Wutai. She wondered if that rich family had even noticed it was gone.

She glanced upwards as a familiar 'qwark' was heard. She let a smile fall upon her lips as she saw a Chocobo with a black haired teen riding atop its back.

"Ah, hayaku Yuffie-hime." A lanky boy laughed as her smile switched to a glare.

"Hiro-chan!" She yelled and hopped onto the back of the yellow bird, and gave him a hard hit on the shoulder before continuing to converse with him in their traditional Wutanese language.

"You can't call me that, remember? What if someone hears you?" She questioned him angrily, she didn't see him roll his eyes but she knew he'd done it.

"Yuki Shiroi then, kay?" He chuckled at the stupid alias and kicked the bird's sides signalling him to get moving. He let out a big loud 'qwark!' and got running down the muddy path of the main street on his long clawed feet.

"Yuki Shiroi? That's still a princess, you know." She sighed and rested her head against his surprisingly warm back.

"You don't have to be Wutai's princess but you can still be mine if that's fine."

She blushed at that and held him tighter.

"Baka."

* * *

They stopped under the cover of a rocky ledge jutting out of the side of a large hill as rain begun to fall. Water flowed from a creek over the ledge to a pond surrounded by trees on one side and a gravel path on the other. The falling water made a tiny waterfall to which they could hide behind and rest for as long as they needed. Yuffie's companion was removing the items stashed in his bag to show to her. A big smile graced his features.

Hiroge Ren was a childhood friend of hers, the only one that didn't see her as higher than themselves thanks to her father and her title of royalty. He had deep brown eyes and black hair just like hers but his fringe and the ends were turned up into spikes. His face was more of the oval type, and he had this permanent boyish grin planted onto his optimistic features. He was tall, but not any kind of ridiculous height, just enough to make her realise how small she really was. He had stolen from a rich family awhile back: a white dress shirt and black pants. He would have looked sophisticated if not for the mud at the ends and the creases that covered the sleeves and the pants legs.

The dress she'd stolen was crimson patterned with black and yellow stripes; personally she hated the look of it but it was all she'd managed to get in the short time she had. The ends originally were white but dried mud had stained them far darker. She had to roll up the sleeves to keep them from covering her hands and had to lift up the many folds of the dress so she could walk without tripping over the fabric.

"That couple had to be rich; look at all this gold: bracelets, necklaces, rings! I got so much of it, there was just so bloody much!" He laughed ecstatically. She held her knees to her chest by wrapping her arms around them, and returned his smile.

"Wonder if they're senile. Do you think those morons would even notice that we stole all their precious jewellery?" She snickered, his smile just widened.

"Well if they are they might go thinking some pest stole it if they notice at all, they ain't going to think we did it, too good of an actor I am." When they'd arrived on the doorsteps Hiroge had acted like an angel to them, in fact he had right up to when the couple had gone to bed, that was when he and Yuffie had started to plot their future burglary.

The girl didn't speak any English at all, so he had to do all the talking for them. It was his parents that were fine with the language, believing that learning it could be a help for better connections to the outside world. But Yuffie's family had been dead against it, and refused to let her know even one word. Hiroge was teaching her as best he could, but he wasn't very good of a teacher and the language structure was so damn different.

"So what's the next town anyway?" She piped up as he'd carried on looking through his stash.

"I think it was Nebelheim; creepy town from what I heard. We'll pass through" He informed her and lay down on his back, with his hands behind his head.

"Heh, agreed, haven't heard a single good thing from that town. Heard it has a higher death rate for its citizens than any other town in the country. Now that's creepy." She snorted and laid herself down next to him, on her side with one hand under her head and the other on his chest.

"I think that's just because it's like winter all year round for them. Why would you even live there eh?" He grinned and rolled his eyes, not taking it seriously at all.

"Well maybe they're just plain stupid." She as well was not taking in the seriousness of what they were actually talking about. Yuffie snuggled closer to him as the rain began to pour harder and the air about them decreased in temperature.

"You alright like that?" He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her petite cold form.

"Of course I am, baka." She smirked as he rested his forehead against hers and ran his fingers down her cheek. She shivered as the freezing skin touched hers, but didn't back away from the touch.

From the difference of status between them back in their home country of Wutai, anything between them would've been forbidden. He'd worked as a servant in the palace, and being of the same age they'd become close friends. And with no one being aware of their friendship, there was nothing to stop it developing further. They'd gone much further than a simple touch on the cheek, but she saw no reason to regret any of it.

Hiroge pressed his lips to hers in the sweet embrace, enjoying to the fullest the feel of her as her soft pink lips kissed him back. He ran a hand through her short black locks, wishing somewhere inside of him for this moment never to end.

That night they'd stayed close to each other, partly for warmth, and partly because they wanted to. Hiroge had created a fire at one end of the covered area, far enough away from the waterfall so no droplets threatened to put it out. A blanket had been pulled out of a bag tied to the side of their Chocobo to cover them; the bird in question was fast asleep out on a patch of grass next to the pond. He wasn't close but the bird adored them too much to run off.

He and Yuffie were tired, but neither had it in them to end this moment, so instead they lay wrapped up in each other's arms, with the blanket covering their nakedness. A layer of sweat was visible on her arm resting on his chest; some of it was from the heat of the fire and the rest from their previous activities. His hand was slowly making its way through the length of her messy ebony hair lovingly.

She hated it when her eyes became more and more tempted to close, but when it got too much for her to keep them open, she didn't forget to say one more thing.

"Watashi wa anata o aishite"

"Ditto." The last thing she remembered before it went black was him laughing softly to himself, knowing that she didn't even know what that meant. But he didn't have any doubts she'd gotten the meaning.

* * *

When morning came, they awoke to the sound of the rain falling down and their poor Chocobo going nuts with the constant pelting of water on his bright yellow feathers. Hiroge rose first and quickly caught her as in her sleepy state she almost fell headfirst onto the stone surface below them.

"Baka." He laughed and dodged as she swiped angrily at him. In the time she'd taken for her mind to fully return to the world of the awake he had already managed to retrieve his clothes and was halfway through pulling his pants up his legs.

"Wha…it's still raining! Ooh!" She groaned and flopped backwards, quickly regretting her decision to do so as her head hit the rocks.

"Ow, now that was dumb." She picked herself back up and rubbed the spot where she predicted a lump would form. She pulled the blanket closer to her as she became more aware of just how cold her surroundings were.

"We really need to get out of this area, it's so cold! All it does is rain!" She complained and he chuckled and threw her dress at her.

"Well that may be because it's winter right now. But hey, if we leave now we can be past Nebelheim by sundown, so we should be able to get away from this rain in a day or two." He informed her and finished buttoning his shirt. He went to go load up their possessions on the Chocobo while she struggled to get her dress on.

"Finally!" She shouted and followed after him, now fully dressed.

* * *

It was impossible to see what time of day it might have been thanks to the sky painted a dark grey all over. On the horizon the clouds took a startling turn to black, and they could only hope that storm passed over them and this was all they had to deal with. The dirt on the ground turned to mush under the weight of the bird's feet, and the road ahead of them was hidden behind all the speeding drops of water falling from the ominous clouds above. Hiroge was constantly forced to move wet strands of hair from his eyes and had to take extra care of the reigns in his hands with the Chocobo being so unsteady under its poor feet.

Yuffie clung to him as tight as her petite arms allowed her, she was sore all over her back from the uncomfortable position she was forced into. The ends of her dress were covered with mud kicked up from the chocobo's talons and same went with Hiroge's pants legs. She swore she could scream at the moment and no would hear her, the rain hit every part of her and all that surrounded her brutally. The thunder and lightning that began soon after that only made her think it more.

The worst part was this storm would last for hours. They could only hope the poor bird could last that long, for they knew well they couldn't.

* * *

As night fell the Chocobo was having an increasingly difficult time manoeuvring the area. The rain had dwindled down from the pouring rate it'd been before to sprinkles every now and then, but the state of the ground was worse than they had ever seen before; it was a sloppy mess. They'd stopped off in the driest area they could find and let the poor bird have a rest. It collapsed to the ground in an exhausted heap next to them, so Hiroge gave the bird's soaked feathers a kind ruffle. He held Yuffie close to him with his other arm to try and keep the both of them as warm as possible. The wind battered them and the trees, causing both to shiver horrible. Yuffie hugged the sopping wet garment closer hoping that if she was in a ball she'd get less of the wind hitting her way.

Because of the bad weather they'd be forced to stop off half way through the day and have a break. It'd lasted longer than they wanted and they were closer to the town then they'd originally intended to be at the end of the day an thanks to the state of their surroundings they knew for sure that sleeping was going to be hell tonight, especially if the clouds chose to rain again.

Yuffie fished out a half-finished loaf of bread from her bag; the expensive fabric it was made out of had done a good job of keeping their food dry. She took out as well a knife and cut two pieces off for her and Hiroge. The man despite the crappy condition today had been he still held that same everlasting smile as he took his piece from the girl, he held it with his mouth and snatched the rest of the loaf form her tiny hands. She was about to protest but stopped when he cut off a slightly larger piece and threw it in the direction of their Chocobo. The big yellow bird caught it with his beak and chirped a happy 'Kweh' in thanks as it chomped down on the morsel of food.

"Birdy needs some too after all that." He notified her brazenly as he took his first bite of the dry bread.

She whacked him on the head and laughed as the surprise attack left him biting his tongue.

"Hey, what was that for?" He rubbed the spot, hoping no lump would form later.

"For telling me what I already knew." She replied with her hands on her hips. "I'm not stupid! You of all people should know that."

"Of course I do, you just like to act stupid." He chuckled.

"HE…!" But she stopped herself, quickly she reminded herself to finish her food so she shoved the remnants into her mouth all in one go and then she went to hit him. But Hiroge was more prepared this time and caught her hand; before her stunned self could catch up he pushed her onto her back and with a sly smile climbed on top of her.

"Now I know you don't want to fight me." He laughed and bit her bottom lip, enjoying her surprised gasp. He pressed his lips to hers once more and kept them there, unable to pull himself away. She'd been like a forbidden fruit to him back in Wutai, like a delicate doll made to look at but not touch. It'd almost sent him insane not being able to be with her in the way he wanted, and having to know she wanted it too. All that had been in his way was centuries old traditions he cared nought for. In that one night, they'd chosen to break all those rules, and consummated the relation that wasn't allowed to be. Knowing that without those rules bound to their lives, that they could be together like this, it was almost more than his mind could take.

He only took his lips away from hers to breathe, if people didn't have to breathe, he'd probably never let her go.

"You know, if you're an idiot, I guess I'm a bigger one."

* * *

The sound of footsteps awoke Yuffie in the middle of the night. Fearfully she opened her eyes but was greeted with nothing but darkness and the sound of the rain pouring. She and Hiroge were under the cover of a humongous tree's branches and had managed to stay dry for the most part. These footsteps she heard were definitely in the rain, the sound the ground made wasn't what happened when you touched solid ground, so it must have turned to mud yet again. Her eyes dashed around the area, searching for the culprits that had woken her, but all she could make out was grey silhouettes hastily moving about. She swallowed a lump in her throat about the time their Chocobo was roused from its sleep. Immediately its better eyesight spotted the man and let out a frightened squawk.

When that happened Yuffie decided she needed to wake up Hiroge, with shaking arms she shook the arm he had wrapped around her. Groggily he opened up his eyes and slowly made out her worried face staring down at him with pleading eyes. That was when he heard the men, they were talking amongst themselves in their own language, and he knew that the poor girl above him must have had no idea what was going on.

"Princess?" He whispered quietly.

"There are people about; I think we need to get out of here. They don't sound nice." She begged.

He nodded in complete silence and picked himself up; he held Yuffie's hand tightly into his own, fearing to be apart from her in this moment. They walked stealthily along, he tried to adjust to the darkness but his eyes refused to do so. He could hear the men clearly now, they were closest to the Chocobo. He knew it wasn't best but he couldn't chance trying to be a hero and saving the bird, he needed to get him and Yuffie out of here and that was that.

He still had one bag; he couldn't find the satchel filled with their supplies, only the one filled with the items they'd looted. He'd get them to the next town and sell it there for money to buy what they'd lost.

He winced when one of the men, in total hysterics decided it would be funny to attack the fearful Chocobo observing them. The first punch made the bird let out an ear-splitting cry of pain; the others came too fast for the fowl to even get the sound out of its throat. Turning his head he could make out Yuffie's panicking expression, she feared deeply for both them and the Chocobo that had been the one thing that had let them successfully escape from Wutai. Hiroge had raised the yellow bird from a newborn chick, it was only a Chocobo, but the two had bonded over the years he'd had him, surely this must be hurting him seeing what these men were doing to him. It wasn't helping that this was the moment their eyes were finally adjusted to the night.

Hiroge took a second to gather up his courage and rip his eyes off the pitiful sight. He gripped Yuffie's hand tighter and forced himself to keep moving. They were now out of their cover and were being pelted by the pouring rain of the night's storm. The ground turned into slick mud and Hiroge slowed down to quiet his steps. The ground was in a bad state, he couldn't chance bringing the slightest bit of attention to himself, not in this situation. He knew neither could get away when all that was under their feet had turned into disgusting slush, these men must have been used to it; they weren't. Storms never got this bad where they came from.

But all his hopes were dashed away by one sentence that came from the group of men. He knew Yuffie didn't understand it, but she could have her guesses from what happened next.

"Hey, there are some kiddies over there!" One man's startlingly high voice called out suddenly. He couldn't have even been that old.

Hiroge swore under his breath, he pulled him and Yuffie up and full on sprinted, fear feeding his adrenaline.

"Hey, what did he say!" Yuffie yelled over the rain in question, they'd already been caught, it didn't matter anymore if they were silent. He knew inside they would catch up in this terrain. He couldn't waste his time answering her question when it was obvious enough.

It must have been more than half the men that went after them both, the others stayed behind to torture the wounded Chocobo and see what they could find in the small camp the couple had made earlier in the night.

The mud jumped up so high because of his and her rushing feet that the better half of them were covered with the gunk. The rain blurred his eyesight and stung his eyes as the drops fell from his forehead and landed on them. The darkness only further hindered their escape as he had to keep a hand out in front of him because of his lack of sight and the fear creeping up on him that he was going to run into a dead end. When Yuffie almost fell he felt his position tip from her weight, she succeeded to fix herself up but at the speed he was running at he didn't retrieve his balance fast enough and it was him that tripped up. He landed harshly on the muddy round and Yuffie painfully followed after him because of the grip he had on her wrist. Instinct told him to protect her so he turned around to face the oncoming men and held out an arm for her to hide behind, which she moved herself to hide further behind him. She couldn't even understand these men much less beat them in a fight. She wasn't taught those skills, her family thought it as unsuitable for a girl of her status to know.

The men caught up soon enough and sized up the terrified couple with their eyes. Yuffie could make up their grins from this distance, what called for them to have an expression like that in this situation? Twisted bastards.

One man took a step closer to them, alarmed she moved herself to hide properly behind Hiroge's back.

"Pretty little thing isn't she?" He snickered to the men behind him, all laughed back. She felt her stomach plummet, she didn't understand a word of it, but she knew it wasn't anything good from the way Hiroge had tensed up from it.

"Sad that she's got that kid with her, would've liked to have some fun with her." He chuckled darkly

Hiroge tensed further from that comment, Yuffie feared deeply whatever the man was talking about. The chuckling man stopped his laughing and looked down at the Wutanese boy; he let out a surprised laugh.

"You understand me do you?" He lifted his eyebrows.

Hiroge intensified his glare, he'd grown a hatred for the stranger quickly. He had only one thing to say. "Fuck you."

The crowd laughed their heads off at that, hooting and cackling like mad men.

"Well guess I was right there eh?" The forefront man sniggered, his expression unexpectedly darkening. "Certainly got a colourful mouth on ya, so you'll understand then why I'm going to do this then right?" He brought out a knife from a previous unseen pocket.

Hiroge freaked out, he jumped back bringing Yuffie with him and repeated again that word the terrified girl didn't understand.

"Fuck off!" He growled in a rage.

All the group did was laugh and the armed man closed in on them. Hiroge moved to stand but the slippery ground shifted under his feet and he fell back onto his butt. He groaned and tried again. It was a success this time but his choice to move came too late.

The man pounced on him and Yuffie's arm was ripped from his grasp as he was tackled to the ground. He wrestled with him trying to get the knife away, but in his terror he could hardly think straight. Yuffie could only watch on petrified as the knife drove itself into her lover's stomach. He groaned in pain as the man stepped off him, enjoying the sight of his handy work. Yuffie saw the blood dripping down his skin from the horrible wound, and the blood he painfully coughed up.

Her mind wanted to believe this was all a horrible dream, but in her heart she knew it to be the harsh reality.

"Hiro-chan!" She screamed and ran to him. "Hiro-chan! Watashi o nokoshite inai" She cried, tears of fear and pain fell from the corner of her eyes, thanks to the mental anguish plaguing her in this horrid moment.

"Watashi o nokoshite inai!" The men laughed on at her pain, more than likely finding her language to be hilarious gibberish.

She hugged the top half of him close to her, not wanting to have to feel his blood on herself. With a pained movement he lifted his arm up to cup his hand on her tear streaked cheek.

"Daijōbudesuyo." He whispered into her ear, with the slightest of laughs. He knew he was lying.

"Watashi o nokoshite inai! Watashi o nokoshite inai…" She shook her head, eyes blinded by tears. He wasn't going to be alright, he wasn't going to be alright. Why was he laughing!

His hand fell from her cheek; he no longer had the strength to keep it up.

"Gomen nasai, Hime-chan." He smiled sadly as he coughed up more blood.

He couldn't even keep his eyes open, his chest barely moved. He'd lost too much blood already. And the bastard that had done it never stopped laughing throughout the heartbreaking moment.

She screamed, a scream so strangled with pain it hurt to hear it.

"Hiro-chan! Hiro-chan! "Watashi o nokoshite inai!" She shouted over the storm. Pain filled her entire being to the brim, this couldn't be happening, not now, not like this. It couldn't end, not when it'd only just started. The man she'd almost forgotten was still there grabbed onto her collar and pulled her up, smiling sinisterly.

She screamed as he touched her, he didn't let go. "Hottoite kure, Hottoite kure!" She struggled to get out of his grasp, but to no avail.

"Heh, stupid bitch, that ain't going to get you nowhere." He chuckled menacingly as he pulled her away from her dying companion and threw her to the ground some feet away.

Her head spun from the landing, and her back ached dreadfully. He gave her no time to recover as he placed himself on top of her petite body.

"Now what was that I was saying before? Oh I remember now, it was something about having some fun with you now wasn't it? And now that that imbecile is out of the way there's nothing to stop me from doing it." He smirked with wicked intent.

She didn't have the slightest clue what he just said to her, but she knew from how laced with menace it was, it was beyond sickening. Her stomach sank; she was repulsed with the knowledge that the last thing her Hiro-chan would get to hear was the sound of her screams as she was raped.

The man above her leaned down to steal her lips, but she turned her head so her cheek touched the mud. He laughed at her attempt at a dodge.

"Don't want that now do we? Well then how 'bout this then?" He ripped the fabric concealing her bust and her bare breasts were revealed to him. He chuckled deeply and grabbed them tightly. She bit her lips and screamed from the pain as his nails dug into her soft skin.

"Watashi o ika sete…" She mumbled fearfully, as a tear dripped down her dirty cheek and the monster's cackling rang in her ears.

What happened next started and ended faster than her mind could take it in, she would never have imagined it in her wildest dreams.

What looked like an orange sword ripped through her attacker's chest and tore him straight in half, splattering her with crimson blood. A lone figure stood above him, their face in the direction of the startled men staring with eyes wide as they could go at the corpse of their friend. The stranger went for them next.

The first was downed when their weapon went right through the middle of his head, it was an instant death, and the wielder had to put their leg against his lower body to force his weight off their sword. Two had made a run for it while the remaining man stood with knees clanging together from sheer horror; who was this fiend?

The newcomer smirked and pointed their weapon at him. He gulped, but his overwhelming fear had rooted him to the spot, he knew this was the end. They rushed at him, sword sinking into his chest, but that wasn't all they had in store for him. While he was still alive they changed the weapon's direction in their body and brought it up, right to their neck where they ripped it out of their body so a huge hole was left from the bottom of their stomach to the top of their neck. Blood poured out like a fountain and painted them scarlet. How twisted it was, that the state of the cadaver gave them pleasure.

They turned their head to the two making a run for it. They weren't getting away, that's for sure. Like a human rocket they dashed after them, finding them stuck in one place, with their eyes glued to the spot with the dead Chocobo and the rest of their accomplices that had already been dealt with. The whole area was enveloped by blood. As silent as a shadow the murderer was upon them, cutting off the legs of the first one and grabbing onto the second. The psycho's free hand gripped his wrist so so tightly the bone cracked from the pressure. It was only the start of their suffering. He was thrown to the ground, and a foot was heavily placed on him to keep him from moving. His screaming friend was then lifted from the ground and made to stand on his bloody stumps, which only increased his shrieks. The disturbed man on the ground puked his guts out from the sight, finally not able to take it anymore.

And they still weren't done. With sword in hand his hands were cut off, and then his forearms, and then the remaining up to his shoulders. His screeching was so loud it rang out through the area. His friend still couldn't keep his stomach's contents inside. He was forced to watch all this. The sword was now made to cut shapes in his torso, blood dribbled out from all the cuts. Finally having their fill of toying with him, they drove the sword into his neck and cut his head clean off. They dropped him and sat atop his friend.

There mustn't have been anything left in his stomach as his vomit had turned to nothing but bile which proceeded to swathe one side of his face. His eyes snapped up to the fiend as they sat on his lower stomach. He received one twisted smile before they laid themselves down on him and placed their mouth next to his neck. He could feel their warm tongue run circles on the skin tasting him like he was a delicious delicacy before teeth sank into his neck and sucked out a mouthful of blood. The stranger then moved themselves back up into their previous position gulping the liquid down and picked up their blade that they'd laid down beside them. He was flashed a grin from a blood drenched face before the tip of the weapon ran down the length of his abdomen. With a disgusting sound it opened and revealed his organs. He was still alive, but the blood loss was slowly draining what was left of him. He heard a giggle and saw a head tip down to his surfacing insides. Their tongue was like flames as it lapped up his blood. The last thing he could remember before it all faded was an insanely excruciating pain as teeth clamped down on his heart and ripped it out.

The fiend stepped off the cadaver and swallowed the heart whole before lifting up their blade and making it disappear in a puff of smoke. They shuddered from pleasure as the adrenaline took its time to leave them.

* * *

As the rain begun to stop the stranger made their way back to the girl whose life they'd just saved while licking the blood off of their hand, to find her crying over the body of the boy that had been dead when they'd arrived.

She tilted her head like a curious puppy and watched her sobbing form, wondering what such a girl was doing all the way out here in the first place, it looked to be that she didn't even speak English.

"Hiro-chan, Hiro-chan! Watashi o nokoshite inai, watashi o nokoshite inai!" She cried as her hand touched his freezing body; it'd already lost all its warmth. That knife that had ended it hadn't been removed, his body stank of blood, but the rain had washed away the pools on the ground, so all she kneeled in was mud and rocks.

Terrified eyes jumped up to greet the form of the fiend that had saved her. It didn't matter what they'd done, they'd done it in a horrific way and she was petrified by them. They were a monster. The silhouette of the figure stood watching her, and for some time didn't get any closer. When they chose to Yuffie crawled back fearfully and shouted through her tears at them, "Hottoite kure!" She shut her eyes like that'd make them go away; she was so scared, this had all happened too fast. She just wanted it to end. She needed it to end.

The stranger watched her for a second, before crouching down on the ground and eyeing her, waiting for her to open her eyes again. She did when an orange light flickered behind her closed lids, curiously she opened them a crack, to see the stranger was holding a fancy lantern. It was made out of a golden metal and the flame was a bright orange that illuminated the whole area. Why was the flame one solid colour? Were they always like that?

"Are you alright?" A soft voice with childish interest inquired to her.

She switched her sights from the lantern to the stranger. They were nothing more than a girl. A kid. Her bright blue eyes shone as bright as the blaze in her hand, her short hair was reminiscent to the colour of the peculiar flames, the top half of her hair was tied into two twin braids which were kept at the crown of her head by a silver clip with intricate patterns decorating all along its length. At the end of said braids it was left out to create an overhanging mess while the rest of her short hair was out and lingered about her shoulders.

That was the most normal part of her attire; the rest was what caused her confusion. It was striped with dark colours, and hung loosely over her small body, especially along her arms. It was made of a thick velvet, and lace on the end of the sleeves, near her feet and at her collar. The strange part was that the proper part of the dress cut off unusually high and hung above her knees, it was the white lace until it got to her ankles, where she wore purple heels revealing the front of her foot. She didn't even wear stockings to cover her legs. At the collar was another peculiar accessory. At the back where no lace touched it at all, were massive steel curves covered with velvet that circled her childish face. How it even managed to stay there was that she could still walk with them on her was beyond her.

The girl was silent for only one second longer, and asked her the same question again.

"Are you alright?"

Yuffie stared at her with an expression that might have read, 'are you nuts?' to anyone else. This person had seen plenty, and had caused plenty of what happened here tonight. Her emotions were a mess so of course whatever she felt would be magnified.

"Nani! Saru!" She crawled back, but was stopped when her back met a tree. She screamed from the suddenness treating it like a monster had just pounced on her.

The girl stood up, dissecting her with her eyes. She really didn't understand her, why was she all the way out here when she had no understanding of English? Did that boy know it? And why didn't she? Most Wutanese people had a good knowledge of it today, what was up with her cluelessness about it?

"Eigo o hanasemasu ka?" She asked, and received a stunned look. Just because most Wutanese people knew English, didn't make it the same the other way round.

Yuffie blinked twice in shock, did she really just hear that? This person could understand her! But why out of everyone did it have to be someone like her?

"Iie." She answered and the stranger nodded in response, before continuing in the same language. She could speak it well for someone so young, if differed greatly from English.

"Do you have nowhere to go?"

She had to wait a second for the reply, but that was fine. The poor girl was a real mess.

"No, not without Hiro-chan." She got out dejectedly as another wave of sobs wracked her lungs. It was a horrible realisation. She was alone.

The stranger stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder; she flinched, and looked up into her bright azure eyes. Didn't she have blood on her before? What happened to the blood?

"It's alright. Come with me." She seemed to be pleading with her, why on earth did she want to help? Why did a killer want to help her?

"Do I have a choice?" She choked to get out.

"Not many. There are many bad people lingering about, I can't say where I take you will be much better, but it's a start. It'll only be for as long as it takes." She grabbed her dirty hand and pulled her from her ball on the ground.

For as long as what takes? Did she just not want her to wander about without an understanding of others? Why didn't she just send her back to Wutai then? Her parents must be missing her; the whole palace must be in an uproar that their heir was missing. The queen was too old now to have babies.

"What's your name?" The killer's voice gently piped up in question. Yuffie looked to her from where her eyes had fallen to Hiroge's corpse. She knew she couldn't say her real one, not ever. And then she remembered what Hiroge had called her earlier, a sweet joke of an alias that no one would believe if they understood it.

"Yuki Shiroi."

All she received was a grim smile and a nod, before she was pulled along to her unknown destination, she wasn't even given time to say goodbye.

* * *

The darkness of the night was slowly turning brighter; it must have been in the early hours of morning when she'd first been woken by the sound of the men creeping about. The stranger's mood had switched by so much since the first time she'd seen her; sure she wanted to give her help, but she wasn't ready to put any trust in her, not fully after seeing what she did.

Yuffie was led along a long forest path with dead trees lingering about the edges and the howls of hungry animals sounding constantly. But they didn't scare her; she'd been put through so much tonight she doubted they'd ever be enough to scare her again. The wind whipped through her wet clothes, the fabric on her chest had been ripped almost completely off so she needed to use both arms to keep it in place and hide what she couldn't keep concealed. The thick velvet of her dress had fallen down to her elbows because of her arms position; her limbs were covered in goosebumps from the freezing early morning weather.

The sky was an eerie grey as she was led into a town with large old buildings scattered about, at the entrance they made a line while for the rest of the way they were placed here and there in unsightly disarray.

She ran up to her saviour who had gotten ahead of her and poked her on the back of one of the metal pieces behind her neck. She thought they looked like those little poles that you see on the sides of streets that hold up lanterns in rich towns. But these were much smaller, and very thin with a mighty curve to them. Plus they had that fabric worn over them; whatever were they there for?

"What is it?" The bizarre girl asked her politely in Wutanese. Yuffie would never be able to get her mind around that personality change.

"Where are we?" She asked inquiringly, with her eyes a mite apprehensive.

"Nebelheim." She answered simply enough.

When she heard no response from the Wutanese girl she expected her to drop the conversation. But after a while of walking that thought was dropped with,

"Hiro-chan wanted to avoid this place, said it was dangerous." She told her monotonously, it must have been hard even to say that.

"Everywhere is dangerous."

* * *

The girl stopped in front of one of the larger buildings, a manor on the edge of town. How old it was was anyone's guess. The paint on the walls had faded and the windowsills were cracking. The only thing that didn't look like it was about ready to fall apart was the timber double doors that made the entrance.

Yuffie looked at the stranger expectantly; why did she want to take her here? But that thought disappeared as quickly as it had emerged.

"You've made it obvious that you don't speak English. I thought it would be better to take you to a place that they can understand you. Some of the mansion's inhabitants at least have knowledge of it, so it's a start. And you only have to stay until you've got an understanding of English, then you can leave and go to wherever you want alright?" Her voice was trying to hide some kind of inner worry, why was it in there in the first place?

"It'll be better in a way, I guess." She added in and knocked on the door, not waiting for a response.

Yuffie didn't think anyone would answer, it was so early. They'd still be asleep right?

It was a full ten minutes of knocking before the door was opened. On the other side was a teenage girl Yuffie suspected to be about as old as her; with long waist length sepia brown hair and chocolate eyes void of emotion. They were unnerving to say the least. She had on a yellow night gown ending by her ankles and its buttons undone almost down to her bust.

"What are you doing here?" A harsh criticising voice began, "And why do you have that child with you?"

"I need to talk with your father….." She started but the girl cut her off,

"He only just got back, he's tired, go away." She barked.

"Antoinette! I need to talk with your father!" The orange haired girl yelled back.

The girl, Antoinette, rolled her eyes and folded her arms, giving those beyond the door's wooden frame an irritated scowl.

"And he only just got back, now if you don't mind I'll say it again. Go. Away!" She pivoted on the ball of her feet with full intent on leaving them there.

"Antoinette! Come back here now!"

When she reached the staircase, she rested her dainty hand on the balustrade and gave them both a nasty look.

"Oneself ca'n't stay up for too long lest they fall to dreams where they stand. I will not waste my time on beings such as you; I'm returning to my room now." She walked the rest of the way up and disappeared around the corner, the yelling didn't stop, but she let it be ignored.

Yuffie watched as the strange girl she was stuck with's face deepened to a glare. Luckily she'd kept the door open. Twisting her head to the ebony haired girl she told her to wait inside whilst she go look for the man she was looking for.

* * *

She'd been made to wait on a lounge near the door whilst that girl searched for whoever was the master of this grand house, she hadn't understood a word of that last conversation sides figuring that the girl's name was Antoinette. Even with a language barrier between them she knew that the girl was the rude type.

Yuffie swore she'd never felt silence so loud in her life. There was nothing to disrupt it, not the wind, not a voice, nothing. She'd had them outside, the howling of both the wind and the creatures of the night. They'd helped her get out of this mood, forced it out because her beating heart that was so scared had made her concentrate on them, like they were ready to pounce on her at any second. With them gone, she was left alone with her thoughts, and she never felt worse. Everything for once had been perfect, she'd been with the one she loved and there was nothing wrong about it. She wasn't being reprimanded for acting bad or stealing from the other high class people. She'd always been told it was bad, but she found it fun, and so had Hiroge.

He'd been so much like her, without a care for rules or status. Head-strong to a point; finding everything funny. Most people with so many similarities in their personalities would clash because of them, but in a life where she was different to all, it'd been fantastic to have him there. She never felt herself unless he was by her side. With him gone, she didn't know what to think. It'd all happened too fast, how sick she felt that his existence could be lost just like that. That man that'd done it had no proper reason to have gone that far, she didn't even feel happy that'd he too had had his life ended in the same night.

She could feel herself shaking, her mind wanted to leave itself, her face was void of even a single emotion. She just felt sick, she felt dead. She wanted to die, would that save her from this pain? But Hiroge would hate her for ending it; he'd want her to keep living. She crawled into a ball on that cold chair, what a pitiful sight she must have made. She could no longer make herself cry, her tears had run out. What was she supposed to do?

Her mind couldn't give her the decency of an answer, no matter how much she begged for one.

"Yuki?" The partially familiar voice of her saviour called from the door way. She looked up into their childish face, eyes heavy with unspoken hurt. Had she gotten into a fight? Did the master not want her here?

The named she'd used was so alien to her, but she knew she'd have to get used to it from now on.

"Yes?"

"Come with me." She stepped forward and seized her hand. Yuffie was about to ask but was pulled up and tugged along, she decided there was no need for that question now.

* * *

She was led into a room on the second floor; it had a bed off near the window and a black wooden empty bookshelf in the corner. She gazed about it spinning in circles to take it all in. It was a mite smaller than her bedroom back home, but felt haunting and eerie to her. The wallpaper was peeling and the door to the wardrobe had long broken off.

"You'll have to take that off; it's too much of a mess." The stranger informed from behind her. She watched her face for a minute, expecting her to say more. "You'll be giving a new one in the morning; no one will have to see anything as long as you stay under the covers anyway." She added talking about her dress.

Without a word Yuffie nodded and waited for her to take her leave. When she did she sat down on the queen sized bed. The jumble of quilts was bumpy and uncomfortable, but she knew it'd be warm underneath. Not caring to shut the door first she ripped the torn dress from her glad to no longer have so much blood on her. She pulled down the blankets and drew them back up to her neck, revelling in its warmth, but dreading where her pained mind was going to take her when she reached the world of dreams.

* * *

Surprisingly enough for her, her mind didn't have such a plan for her, instead it floated about the happy times she'd spent with Hiroge, from her childhood to the night before she'd abandoned Wutai and all that knew them. That wonderful night where they abandoned the rules that bound them, she could still remember so vividly the taste of his lips, his smell, and the way she felt as he touched her in ways she'd never been touched by anyone before.

She woke up earlier than she would have liked, the sun had yet to rise, and she was still extremely tired, at least she felt comfortable in the bed. As she took another look around her room, she noticed a man standing in her doorway. She jerked up, almost forgetting to bring up the quilts with her to hide herself.

His eyes were a like a pair of shining garnets set into his head, and they were inspecting her with this seriousness that unnerved her. She wanted to lower her own grey ones away from his, that look was more than she could take.

There was an unspoken hurt screaming silently hidden torment that went on behind those red orbs.

Those eyes, so overflowing with hurt, made her feel like despite all that had happened so far, feel like she didn't know what true pain was, like she knew nothing.

Like she was innocent.

* * *

**And pie.**

**What? I don't know, I lack sanity, I was laughing while reading that real bloody part.**

**I recommend seeker of the skies stories because I'm a good sister. A really insane little sister that she is going to have to suffer with for the rest of her life. Have fun Claire.**

**I also recommend my other FFVII stories, 'Coin laundry', my crime story with a delightfully irrelevant name; and my tragic masterpiece 'Wings of Regret'. It used to be my most violent story, before this took the gory cake. It doesn't have shit loads of blood and gore, merely lot's of one sided bashings and rape. Lot's of rape. **

**I was thinking of trying my hand with lemon in this story, tell me if you think that's a good idea.**

**Reviews shall be much appreciated and shall help my sanity, what sanity? I don't know. I just want to know what you think, concrits welcome.**

**Also I kinda did a bad job describing the vamp's outfit, I have a picture of it, I'll put it up on my deviantart account. It's supersakura64, I just need to scan it.**

**Bye for now.**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	2. The Manor

**(5,269 words) It's not as long as the first but you're all still fine with that right?**

**This chapter is to more introduce you to the main part of the story than moving the plot ahead. Just saying, yes Chaos exists in this story but he looks much more human, so he doesn't have all that crap on his face and no wings.**

**Now for random shit,**

**I CAUGHT THE MOTHERFUCKING HYLIAN LOACH MOTHERFUCKER! six weeks ago but whatever. I've had an obsession with him for around three years now and finally in Ocarina of time did I catch him full size (35 pounds). I screamed and thought I was hallucinating then rolled around on the floor pouring my eyes out. **

**I remember why I hate genesis now, he is a pain in the ass! I'm stuck up to him in the game, and I've versed him four times but he's still owning me, bastard needs to stop summoning those scythe phantoms thingies.**

**I almost fell asleep in maths because my teacher was literally boring me to sleep. But my friend wouldn't let me sleep so I went loopy and when we were walking home, I hallucinated and saw a moose.**

**Beta is having computer problems so she hasn't gone through this, it may have mistakes and whatnot.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this I just want the rights to legally say that Vincent Valentine is my husband.**

* * *

**Chapter 2) The Manor**

* * *

Yuffie awoke in the early morning, with bright rays of sun jutting in through the open curtained window. The wind whistled through the trees outside, but no other sound could be heard. Snowflakes fell in heaps on the ground, the icy wind had swept in through the bedroom's window; the night had been freezing.

The young woman had wrapped herself tightly in the mass of blankets the bed had been lucky to be covered with. She could feel near to nothing of the coldness of the world outside, the only coldness existed inside her own mind. In the first waking minutes of today, she was quite fine, until it occurred to her what had brought her to this mansion in the first place. Because Hiroge had been murdered and without him, she had no where she could go but home. But home was a place she would never dare go, and even if she would, the distance was too great for one without a proper knowledge of the English language. She would have learnt it someday, but this was not that day.

She felt frozen inside, the memory stayed so vivid, refusing to leave her alone. What was she to do now? That girl from the night before, had told her clearly, but even so, the lost feeling bubbling up inside her was inescapable.

She sat up on the bed, looking about the fancy room. It was regally beautiful, even with the painting on the wall missing in places, and the wood chipped, and curtains and any other fabric torn. It was a shame; it dulled what it could be. Maybe no one truly cared, or they simply had no time for it.

A creak alerted her of another presence. A tall slender woman stood coyly by the door, the glass doorknob still held between pale fingers. She was, what Yuffie guessed, was a maid. Her outfit was completely composed of the colours black and white, and strangely considering the trashed state of the house, she was anything but. In fact thought it be odd if she was a maid, her dress was fancy and elegant.

The skirt fell to her ankles, edged with three rows of white lace, and a long petticoat could be seen from under the tips and finishing at the floor. The dress was kept tight against her hips with a black silk bow decorated in floral patterned white lace. On both sides of the bust was similar patterned lace decorating the front along the buttons in the middle. The lace continued to the circle the collar of the low-cut dress, which would have by no doubt shown cleavage if not for the tip of an over-bust white corset that could be seen. The sleeves were a plain silk until the elbows where it cut off with tips of white. The rest of the arms were covered with ebony gloves, the end which she could not see. She wore a pair of cuffs on her wrists, one which got wider and wider as they went on, and ending just at the finger tips with white lace. Around her neck was a black lace choker tied with blue ribbon at the back. Her jet hair was out and ran down to the small of her back

The maid shyly nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but found no word came out. Her face went red as she tried harder to get herself to talk.

Yuffie couldn't help raise an eyebrow about the stranger's peculiar actions.

"S...sorry," She forced up but promptly froze up again. "I don't know…Wutanese…well enough." She stopped herself at the end of her sentence and slapped herself in the face, no doubt noticing how useless telling her that would be considering from what she was told earlier this girl didn't speak anything besides her own language.

Stuttering she got out, "Hajimemeshite." '_That's how they say_ '_hello' to someone they've only just met right?_' she thought to herself and continued in the same shaky voice.

"Onamae desuka?" She bit her tongue, hoping she's said it correctly.

Yuffie's eyes went wide with surprise, so that girl last night was true that there were people here that could understand her!

"Yuffie!" She smiled, she felt relieved; all her problems were forgotten for this moment. They'd come back later. She almost jumped out of the bed, but remembered than that her clothes had been torn and she didn't have any on at current, so instead the hugged the blankets closer.

The maid noticed this and held out to her what she had been holding in her arms, it was a similar dress, only this appeared to be smaller.

She didn't speak; instead she resorted to nodding her head and making a funny sound with her throat, probably meaning that she wanted her to take it.

Yuffie grabbed it and the maid stepped back, she gave her a comforting smile that seemed forced.

She walked backwards until she was at the door, "Watashi no namae no Tifa", she told her before taking another step back, and shutting the door behind her.

Yuffie stared blankly at the wooden door, and then to the odd dress in her arms. These were so confusing to put on.

She smiled despite her current circumstances, '_so that maid's name is Tifa eh?'_

* * *

Yuffie had quickly crawled out of bed to dress. The wind was ferocious as it came through the window and it was getting harder to ignore it. When she was fully dressed she stared at herself for a second in the mirror in the corner of the room to make sure she had gotten the dress on right. She wasn't too sure overall, but she guessed it was as close as she would get by herself. It lightly touched the wooden floorboards below her feet, but there was nothing she could do about that.

She walked to the window and shut it; snow was beginning to build up on the sill. When it was closed the temperature warmed up considerably. And when she had done that, she left the room to see what was around.

Outside the door to her room, was another door to the left and front. And from a look into the keyholes it was clear they were small bedrooms. For a maid or such she presumed, they were nothing grand.

To the right was a magnificent window and beautiful stair case which widened at the bottom. With an excitement not unlike that of a child's, she ran over to it and took it in from a position on the first step. Last night she had been too mortified and it'd been too dark to get a clear look of anything at all, it hadn't helped that her eyes were tearstained. The events from last night had left an empty feeling in her, one which all she wanted to do was ignore it. For now at least she had a million thoughts to keep it away, she feared for when those would be gone and she'd be left with nothing but her misery.

The staircase, like the floor was made of marble, with wooden palings on its sides. Down the top five steps it stopped and split into two facing opposite directions, and from there it curved to come side by side at its end where the steps had become increasingly bigger than it had been at the top. She lifted up the ends of the black dress and ran down them; the white stone was like ice beneath her bare feet. And she predicted when she began feeling pain that sometime last night she may have cut them.

She took the left stairway and so in turn when she reached its bottom, she chose that direction. A door covered up the left side, but when she tried to open it she promptly found it to be locked. She pouted but didn't attempt to rip it open, so instead she took to finding out what was behind the door at the back. She was happy to find it unlocked, and inside was a large cupboard she could walk into. It was filled with old clothing, both of servants and fancier garments obviously previously belonging to one of the other occupiers of the house. She found it to be nothing of interest so she ran to other side of the stairs hoping to find a door in the same spot as the cupboard, but sadly did not find such. She did however find one in the same position the locked room had been, and so with the slightest of smiles she ran to it and swung it open. Inside was an extravagant library, with shelves reaching the roof all filled to the brim with books. Her palace had had a similar place, but it'd been scrolls not books, her father had believed that as books were a western creation it would be insulting to have them in a royal place.

With curiosity fuelling her she tiptoed over to a shelf, and picked up a large mauve tome. Against her deep want to stay silent in this unfamiliar place, she could barely even try to keep in the little giggle that slipped out of her mouth; it was heavy in her hands, she was used to things made of paper being light, did the amount of paper make it heavy? Or the funny looking covering it had? She ran her hands over the golden letter on its cover, Hiroge said that books always have their name, and author written on its front. She thought it sounded silly, but as she found he'd been telling the truth. It was a time like this she wished she knew English, the words on the front were written in those weird characters, and she didn't know what it said at all. She'd been told it was called the 'roman alphabet', and it was what the rest of the world used while Wutai stuck to Kanji and Hiragana.

She sneezed on dust as she flipped through the pages, she had a feeling this room had not been opened for quite some time. She gently put the book back in place and hurried out of the room to go back up the flight of stairs to do more exploring. She felt like a presence had been creeping up on her and it'd served to be unnerving by a large amount. This house was far too empty.

Yuffie took to the right side of the house this time, finding quickly three set of doors. The first was locked, and through it she could see it was another bedroom, it was larger, but not in a better state to her own. On the edge of her limited sight she spotted an ominous black door, her curiosity was piqued by it, but she knew it would be rather rude to ask questions about it. Looking through keyholes was in its own way a disturbance of privacy.

So she hurried along to the next set of doors, and soon found they themselves were locked. She huffed annoyed, what was the point in having so many rooms if they be locked?

She strode around the house for the rest of the morning, taking in its sheer size and finding out which each room held. Most every day she came across was locked, and by the end it was a rarity to find one she could enter. By the end of her search she had found five lavatories, another much smaller library, a million and one bedrooms of greatly varying sizes and two sitting-rooms. Most of all these had been locked away. Some parts of this house had been left unused for an unknown amount of time that she knew had to be at least a handful of years by now. The painting was coming off walls and marble was chipped, even floorboards were poking up and broken. The master of this house clearly didn't care much at all for the appearance his house was kept in. Or there'd be more people here and it wouldn't be ever so lonely. Yuffie was yet to come across a living person during her search, what went about in the head the master? He had this amazing house and he couldn't have cared less. The painting scheme was also so dark, it created this haunting feeling all around.

Her exploration of the manor ended in the dining room, a plain wood wall was to the left, and a set of windows taking up the entire wall was to the right. In the middle a lengthy hard wood table was placed, it had chairs lining both sides, and two more exquisite chairs at its end, where one would expect the master and madam of the house to sit. Behind her was a set of double doors and beyond was a kitchen, alive with noises. Yuffie almost felt shocked when the noise hit her ears, she'd grown accustomed to having the silence here. Then it occurred to her, that for a kitchen in a house this size, it was the definition of quiet; and it hit her then, that only one person was working in them.

Without her truly noticing her feet moved on their own to the sound out of wonder. Of course she noticed then, that sitting at the table was the girl from last night that had tried to kick her and the stranger that had helped her out right at the door.

Shining dark chocolate eyes edged up to her; below them an angry scowl was present. The girl had her arms crossed and was dressed in an elegant burgundy dress edged in black. Her choice of colour reminded Yuffie of the colour of this house, dark and dull. Even her long Sepia hair was tied up with a grey ribbon. The scowl deepened and the girl kicked the ground with her foot agitatedly and pushed back her chair up stood up. She faced Yuffie and didn't even wait one second before she began yelling.

"Oh what are you doing here!? I believe I kicked you and that moronic child out!" She questioned furiously.

Of course she was given no reply, the one she was talking to didn't understand a word of it. All she could tell was that the girl was cross, nothing more.

When she was blankly stared at in return with eyes hinting fright she let out a loud sigh and ran her fingers through her locked irritated.

"And you don't speak English either? Why on earth would one come to a country when they ca'n't even muster a simple knowledge of the language?" She asked her in the same tone, she knew well enough how useless it was, but her anger had blinded her too much for her to care for logic.

Yuffie continued to stare, waiting for either the girl to stop or for someone to come save her; but considering what she had seen already, she knew both were hopeless.

"How dare you make no response!? Listen to me you ignoramus!" The girl stamped her foot on the ground, and Yuffie took a step back shakily, fearing if she was to become violent.

"You are my maid now so you have to listen to me! Now respond or I shall hit you!" She drew up her hand as a warning.

Yuffie understood what she intended to do even with the barrier between them.

"Gomen nasai!" She yelled panicking; she bowed then broadened the distance between them with a great step backwards.

"Couldn't you even attempt to talk properly!" The girl covered the space that'd been set between them and slapped Yuffie on her cheek. The impact left her on the ground nursing a red mark.

"Gomen nasai, gomen nasai…" She mumbled as scared tears begun running down, she didn't even understand what she was doing wrong.

"I said speak English you moronic idiot!" She aimed a kick at her with her boot, it hit Yuffie's shin hard.

The Wutanese girl had picked up the word 'English' only, she failed on everything else but she guessed from the annoyance this girl was showing it was because she wanted her to speak English. So saying sorry wasn't going to help unless it was spoken in the language she wanted. But she couldn't say anything beyond 'hello' because that was all she had picked up and what she could remember from Hiroge's attempts at teaching her.

"Watashi wa dekimasen…" Yuffie murmured as more tears fell, she couldn't not if she tried, why didn't this girl see it?

"I said English!" The word was screamed at her again as another kick was aimed at her.

She closed her eyes and waited for it to connect. But it didn't. She opened her eyes in wonder, to see the maid from before blocking the foot from hitting its target. She'd taken the impact herself, but in a way where you'd choose to say it had been blocked, than that she was hit herself. She had blocked it with her arm, and by lifting up her arm at the moment of impact she had taken out most of the force and left the attacker off balance.

"Miss Antoinette, I'm sorry to inform you but she is unable to speak our language. I was told she was with another when she came to this country, she hadn't needed to know it for she had him to speak it for her." The maid, for which she had earlier been told, was named Tifa, notified Antoinette as politely as she could so as to not flame her anger.

"Hmmf." She turned so she wouldn't have to look at the maid and the Wutanese girl that had gotten her so angry in the first place. "It's stupidity not to have a knowledge isn't it? Didn't she ever think it possible he might die?" Antoinette sneered. Yuffie didn't know it, but she should be glad she was clueless over the contents of her last sentence.

"No one has such thoughts when they have had good luck previously in their life." Tifa stood up, hoping that her stature, which was a good head higher than the teenager, would call for intimidation.

"There's no such thing as good luck or a good life, ask Papa. I'm sure he could tell you all about that. In fact you do yourself, why would you say something you ca'n't take belief in yourself?" She inquired with hurtful intent.

Tifa winced under the cold gaze she was given, but forcibly made herself continue. "Sometimes it's best to believe in something good, to trick your heart into believing it; otherwise everyone would be falling into the darkness like you already have."

Antoinette rolled her eyes at the maid's comment, "You speak non-sense; I'm going to leave now. When lunch is ready bring it to my room. I don't want to have to look that child in the face-"

"She's not much younger than you how can you-!" But Tifa was interrupted with a slap to her face, Flaming eyes faced her.

"Don't you dare talk back to me!? Me of all people! Now you obvious idiot do as I say. Goodbye!" She pivoted on the ball of her feet and stormed out, slamming the double doors behind her.

When she was no longer in earshot, Tifa released a sigh, that girl made anyone feel exhausted. Though he was strange indeed, her father was nothing like her at all, it was a sure wonder how Antoinette grew up to be so rude and short tempered.

The maid knelt down and picked Yuffie up off her feet, the younger one smiled with relief and happily thanked her for the help she gave her, "Arigatou gozaimasu."

Tifa nodded, glad that the simple sentence was a part of the Wutanese she knew. Her knowledge was simple and small; her mother had had a like for the country so different from her own. She was the one that was fluent; her daughter had only managed to pick things up here and there.

"Anata wa daijōbu desuka?" She asked her nicely if she was okay.

Yuffie nodded and Tifa walked her over to the table. As her knowledge was tiny she nodded her head and pointed in the direction of the chair instead of asking her to take a seat. But the message was understood and Yuffie took the chair. Tifa strode back into the kitchens and finished making the lunch she had been preparing.

* * *

Two weeks passed by quickly, Antoinette was still acting violent, but Yuffie was improving on avoiding her fits of anger mainly because Tifa had taught her to apologise in English as best she could. She was pronouncing it as 'souri' but she was lucky the abusive girl was near missing how the 'R' sound was mixed in with an 'L' sound. Getting out of talking that way, as Tifa had told her, would be difficult.

Yuffie was smart enough to guess that the master of the manor knew her language as well as Tifa, but as she was yet to even see him a second time, Tifa was left teaching her English. Now as the woman wasn't fluent she had each lesson she gave her a piece of paper which was assisting her. Most every lesson she had a new one, and as Yuffie soon found out the master was the one writing down the information on it, well at least he was helping in his own way.

In the two weeks she had learnt a surprising amount, she understood well enough the difference in structure, as Tifa had decided on teaching her that before moving onto words themselves. She had to remind herself that English was almost a backwards language, and when she got that into her head it became much simpler. Beyond the structure she knew simple words like, 'hello', 'goodbye', 'thank you' and 'sorry'. The last felt like it was a need in this mansion with Antoinette around.

The pronunciation she was yet to fully figure out, it was so strange, it had all this funny sounds she'd never heard off. And the writing was difficult as well; she couldn't understand any of it. Tifa was teaching her what each letter was called, and she knew up to 'F'. She wasn't going to be taught writing for a long time, Tifa just believed it best she knew the alphabet to start off. Apparently it had things called 'silent letters', where there is a letter in a word that is not pronounced when said aloud. When she didn't understand why that was so, Tifa compared it to the 'S' sounds in Wutanese using 'Su' as an example. She said that usually they are said so fast they may as well not be is there at all. But she didn't understand, so Tifa decided not to bring it up again until she chose to begin teaching her how to write.

So far, her life here was fine. But that pain never left, she could only ignore it, like she had with all her feelings back home. She was highly skilled at doing so, but when she had nothing to distract her with, it all came back, and she couldn't stop the tears.

* * *

Vincent sat down on the bed; he'd left the house in the early hours. The wind was harsh and snow already covered the path he'd taken to get here, even when it was only early winter. Nebelheim was complete hell for those three months, and not much better the other nine. Hearing of a death was common, even if it wasn't icy, the fact wouldn't change.

This part of town was still alive, it never slept; it only calmed down during the hours of sunlight when bad deeds would be clear and in the open. The town had an astounding amount of lost men and women, who always turned to crime and or prostitution for saviour that never came. He took great advantage of such people, for the sin of taking their lives felt less heavy in his heart. A part inside their minds was begging for it, they would never admit it to even themselves, but that pain shone from their eyes.

He watched as the whore before him stripped down keeping on only her garter belts. The fair haired girl was still young, but had lost everything so early this life was all she had, or it'd be the streets for her. At least the owner of the whorehouse treated her whores nicely, considering that the truth of their lives were torture. He only ever came here on busy nights like tonight, so he'd never be suspected when one of the women turned up dead. He'd been using this girl for a while, but that dark part of his mind was getting bored, so he had decided to end it tonight.

The girl put on a cheeky smile, it was an obvious act, but he had no care to tell her to stop it even when it annoyed him to no end. She ran a hand through her boy's length sandy hair and sat down on his lap with that same godforsaken smile.

She kissed him on the lips before moving down to her neck and staying there. His mind couldn't deny the fact it felt good, and he would have let her continue, but the voice in the back of his head was getting impatient. Very impatient.

'_Do it now!'_

He shut his eyes, the voice came from him, but it disgusted him. Seventeen years and he still was sickened by himself, it was nothing but idiotic. He did it all on free will, if he wanted to stop he would have stopped, such a shame how good a person's blood smelled.

Vincent learned down to her neck, she barely noticed for she was too caught up by what she was doing. She flinched when she felt teeth touch her neck, she couldn't see from her exact position, but if she could she knew calling them 'teeth' was not the best word, fangs fitted much better. She tried to jump from his grasp when he bit down, she screamed through clenched teeth, making it sound more like a whine. The whore tried to pry herself out of his strong grip, but found it to be to no avail whatsoever.

"S..sir!" She sobbed as it began to hurt, she was used to pain, but not pain like this.

Her word made him tighten his grip; he couldn't let her go when she tasted so good. He took the crimson liquid in in big gulps, as her strength weakened.

"Sir!" She pulled herself backwards, and from her abruptness she fell from his lap and onto the wood floor. Drops of blood tricked down from a cut on her forehead, but she was more concerned by the amount pouring from the bite mark on her neck, which she'd managed to worsen by ripping the fangs out sp forcefully. The liquid was pooling on the ground below her, and even when she tried to stop the bleeding by putting her hand against it it didn't help and she found herself getting dizzy.

Vincent stood up, his mind had been enjoying the site of her dying body, but he hadn't had his fill yet. He covered her and moved his mouth back to the wound he'd given her. He slurped up the blood that had covered it before sending his fangs back in and drinking more deeply. She wimped as the man above her went from a man to a monster. Clawed hands took hold of her arm and thigh to hold her still and they dug into the soft skin, drops of blood feel from the ripped skin.

She never stopped her struggling, no matter how weak she got. But it was a failure for her, her life was over.

Vincent stepped off her pale corpse and wiped a hand, which was turning now back to normal, against his bloody lips. The girl was white, fear shone from lifeless dead eyes, that'd never show anything again. She was painted in red, her cheeks tear-stained.

Revolting.

His mind was in constant question of how he could keep this up, it repulsed him, but he couldn't keep himself from it. Would there ever be a way to break him of this curse?

He left the room in a hurry, in case anyone had heard and to avoid the chance of being spotted whilst covered in her blood. He would be safe when he got outside, it would be far too dark to see anything out there. It helped brilliantly, and was one of the reasons he was yet to be caught. The other was that death was so common around here; so many men were be fine with taking the lives of innocents.

He took a back door outside, the wind was moving in the worst possible direction, right at him to be specific. He hated it, but at the same time felt like he deserved it. He pulled his coat on tighter; funny how a part of his mind was annoyed that he didn't let that girl didn't complete what she was doing before he took her life. Heh, it was the exact same voice that impatiently wanted him to kill her. It didn't matter, he'd use that maid later.

* * *

Yuffie had woken up hours after she'd first gone to her bedroom to sleep. Tifa had given her a nightgown earlier as obviously she couldn't sleep in that maid uniform. She had been well enough for most the night, but she didn't know anymore. Her mind was so confused, she didn't know if she was feeling anything at all. It should hurt more, but her mind was still in disbelief over everything. She'd seen Hiroge die violently right before her eyes, if he was still alive she wouldn't be here right now, she wouldn't need to learn the language like she did if she still had him.

So why won't her mind just accept it?

Because she knew it never would. It couldn't

She'd spent years hoping for a miracle, and when it happened, it was ripped away, savagely no less.

It was never meant to be, it was never allowed to be, for anything to be between them like it had.

A tear fell down her cheek as she turned on her bed, with the intent of returning to her sleep. When she heard a loud blood-curdling scream. She shivered and drew the blankets closer and hid beneath them.

There was no language barrier when it came to a scream, it meant fear.

Behind the excitement of a new world, she knew what the truth of this place was.

It was hell.

* * *

**And Cake.**

**I'm affecting my friend horribly apparently...I just heard my mum call my dad 'Patricia'...weird...anyway,**

**She said it's my fault that a couple months ago she had a dream where she had a knife and was stabbing Edward Cullen and he was sending her blind with his sparkling, and then she died. And then she woke up.**

**Fun**

**Reviews shall be much appreciated and thank you for the ones I got for the first chapter.**

**If you like this story than you'll probably like my story 'wings of regret'. I think I have the right to be a shameless self-promoter when my fav story is my most unpopular. sadly it's starting sucks.**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	3. The maid

**(6,635 words) My beta hasn't gone through because of computer problems. Don't trust my editing abilities. It would be probably better but I was watching TV and currently have drunk people dancing in front of me. It was grand final day today, so my mum and brother had friends over. They're all drunk.**

**I would have posted this earlier but I had a distraction. Try to guess what it is, if you review I tell you the truth.**

* * *

**chapter 3) The maid**

* * *

Yuffie stared blankly at the bland grey roof above her. She remained with the blankets wrapped around her small form, breathing in and out slowly, the exhales formed little clouds above her. She'd been awake for hours but didn't want to leave the warmth of her bed. She wouldn't be able to say how long she had been at the mansion, a month or two she guessed, it all flowed by her, the days became jumbled in her memories. It was deep into the middle of winter, the air was like floating ice that you couldn't escape from, back home, winter was cold, but only just cold enough to merit snow; this was a hellish tundra. Layers of snow-covered the ground outside, she detested the days she and the other maid had to go out to town to buy food. The mansion was on the outskirts and almost always the centre of a blizzard, if it wasn't for Tifa's knowledge of the area, she would most certainly get lost.

Yuffie shivered as a wisp of outside air reached her, the window to her room didn't close perfectly as it was broken. It wasn't much but the air managed to get in through the tiny gap, it was horrible to feel whilst wearing the sheer nightgown.

"You should get up now you know." A voice appeared from the doorway, Yuffie shuffled up into a sitting position on the mattress, bringing all the blankets with her. When she turned her head she unsurprisingly saw Tifa standing by the door frame. The maid came here every morning, expecting to find her still in bed. But as the young girl was now made to work as a maid here, she wasn't allowed excessive sleep-ins. She had work to do, same as Tifa.

Yuffie didn't know English yet to fully translate what she had been told, but from having it said to her every morning she got the gist. She nodded and leapt out, immediately regretting the decision to leave the confinement of her snuggly bed so fast, she felt like she'd jumped into an icy river. Yuffie wrapped her arms around herself to try to keep warm, but in her nightgown such a task was impossible in this weather. She wondered if the other occupants felt it as bad as she did. Though she hadn't seen the master of the house enough to even take a guess, all she'd seen were fleeting glimpses of him.

"You should get dressed." Tifa informed her before leaving and shutting the door to give her some privacy. The woman was waiting outside, Yuffie knew so because not only could she hear her humming softly to herself despite the barrier but she had done just the same each morning since she started the habit of getting her out of bed in a morning.

Yuffie went to the closet at a slow pace as she felt she had been frozen by the below zero temperature. She retrieved her dress and took off her gown before fast as she could put on the outfit. She couldn't find the words to describe how cold she felt without anything covering her body for to her even her mind had been frozen in that minute. She picked up the brush that had been lent to her by Tifa, Yuffie was glad her hair was boy's length, it was so quick and easy to keep well-kept. Back when she still lived in Wutai it had been long because her father refused to let woman have short hair, he claimed woman who cut their hair short wanted to be treated more like men, which in his mind was preposterous. Women were women and men were men was what he would say. No doubt he ignored the fact that there shouldn't have been anything wrong with western women who wanted to be treated like men, as even submissive Wutanese women had more freedom in their life then westerners. Kunoichis alone were proof of that fact. When Yuffie had left, she cut her hair to shorter than what Hiroge's was, as a sign that she wouldn't listen to that man anymore.

Then she frowned, as she remembered about the boy whose life had been tragically cut short not long ago. She shook with a sob but forced back the tears that threatened to fall. She was not weak; she wouldn't let herself cry no matter what the reason. Sure she felt so scared and alone without him being here with her, but she couldn't let herself show such weakness.

Yuffie forced the boy to the back of her mind, she couldn't think about him now, or else she really would pour her eyes out. She only had to stay here a bit longer; she wouldn't be in this hell forever. She simply needed to learn English, that was the only thing that kept her here, and Tifa was a good teacher for what she knew, she was learning fast. And when she was taught all she could she could leave this place, leave the place he died.

With Hiroge out of her mind she left the room, finding Tifa no less than three feet away, still humming to herself. Though Yuffie had no intention to say it out loud, something looked wrong with the older girl. She blamed how pale she was turning on the cold weather, she herself was turning white. But big purple patches were forming under Tifa's eyes, she looked incredible tired and fearful, and each time Yuffie ran by her in a hallway, she was silent and staring at nothing with a blank expression.

Something really had to up with her. But she was too scared to ask what.

Despite her thoughts, Yuffie forced a smile, one which Tifa half-heartedly returned.

"We should get to work, before Antoinette wakes up." Tifa pushed off the wall and continued down the hall to fetch the supplies.

Though still Yuffie could not translate that sentence in full, simple hearing 'Antoinette' gave the answer to what she was being told. The girl enjoyed sleeping into midday, and in these cold months that habit seemed to be getting worse. So for the first few hours of work they'd have to be deadly quiet, and then around the midday mark Tifa would head into the kitchens and wait for Antoinette, knowing that if she wasn't there first, Antoinette would chase her down and go on an absolute rant about why her breakfast was not on the table yet. She would call Tifa all sorts of names most ladies wouldn't even dare say to even the worst of people. But from what she'd already seen, it was clear to Yuffie Antoinette wasn't most 'ladies'.

* * *

The work she was being made to do was simple enough, the only reason it could be bothersome at all was because of the size of the house she was working in with only one other servant. As they had to be quiet in the morning, most of the work included dusting off furniture gathering layers of dust. Now even she knew that most these rooms never had anyone in them, so making them so spotless seemed nothing less than idiotic. The reason they had to at all was because Antoinette claimed that if they cleaned only the rooms being used, the workload would be so much less so they'd both become slackers. Yuffie didn't agree, but none the less she found herself each morning cleaning up rooms she wouldn't have even known were there otherwise. Different rooms were cleaned each day as there was far too many to cram into a day between only two. In the mornings the only other task was to clean the windows. Truly the work wasn't hard, just rather troublesome, especially if they didn't make it perfect because Antoinette would use it to go on another rant.

Sometimes Yuffie really had to wonder what on Gaia was wrong with her, she was a pampered only child who got everything she wanted. The only problem was the silence she'd have to suffer with day in and day out in the monstrous house of hers. But loneliness didn't seem a right reason for her behaviour, that didn't make sense either.

Again this was a thought she put out, she had no reason to continue to ponder about it, she knew well it'd get her nowhere.

When she finished cleaning a bedroom not in use, she looked out the window that had been open when she entered. Originally she was going to close it as it was freezing her skin, but instead she took a minute to rest her cramping hand and looked out to the frozen tundra. In a way it was beautiful, but in an eerie kind of way. The ground was white, she in faced away from the town, and from here she could see the snow-covered peak MT Nibel. When she was meaning to pass through, she had seen it, even with such a distance. It was a haunting site, it cast a shadow on the land below, and the only way to it was an untrustworthy rocky path. Even Yuffie had heard the stories about it being haunted, but according to the stories this whole place was, cursed even. She tore her eyes away as it began to make her uncomfortable, the sun was high in the sky, close to the middle but hidden behind grey clouds threatening the world below with more snow.

Tifa must be at the kitchens; Antoinette had to be awake by now. The girl was probably still grumpy too, she was worse in the mornings; that was why Yuffie would try to keep away from her at all costs. She felt sorry for Tifa right now.

Yuffie left the room to continue her cleaning work. She worked through two more rooms before picking up a broom and working on the hallways. The hallways were most important as they were actually used, and it was far easier for Antoinette to spot failure when it was a place she actually went to. Not to say she didn't go to the other places they cleaned, why she went in and out of rooms all day just so she could find even one little thing that could merit scolding. She seemed to love the sound of her own voice, especially when it was angry.

Yuffie absent-mindedly cleaned until Tifa came back so her lessons would start. They would begin in the afternoon and go into the night most days, unless the house was short on food and they needed to go out for it. Then they would be cut short so they could go into town. Tifa enjoyed her company on those days; the trip must be much safer when a person was in a group.

Yuffie didn't notice she had wondered into the entrance room until the broom accidentally banged on the wooden table placed in front of the massive stain-glass window. A picture frame fell off the edge but Yuffie caught it in time before it could shatter on the floor. She held it up to look at the picture it contained. She'd seen it before but always dismissed it, not really bothering to take a closer look. She realised that it was not anyone she knew. It was an elegant and beautiful woman sitting on a loveseat with a quaint smile playing on graceful lips. Judging from the design of the room behind her it was this very house, but many years ago for it looked to be in a much nicer condition. Still she couldn't help but feel she was in a room she had never been in, thought it seemed familiar; it was still so different to any room she had seen here. For one a window run all along the wall behind her. She couldn't recall such a place she'd seen here. Then it occurred to her, this must be that locked room down stairs, the one she had tried to open on her second day but couldn't.

When she stopped thinking about the room she was really made to think, who was this woman? Why was her photograph here?

"What are you doing?" Tifa asked from behind her suddenly, before she bothered to make her appearance known.

Yuffie jumped and almost dropped what she was holding, only just stopping herself. She twisted around to see Tifa, who had just come from the direction of the kitchen.

"I saw this." She stumbled to make the sentence, only hoping that she had gotten it correct, as she held out the frame for Tifa to see.

The black-haired woman nodded in understanding that the younger had simply been curious about the picture.

"Who she?" Yuffie tried to ask, even she realised she had said it wrong, but she couldn't figure out what.

"Antoinette's mother." Tifa answered solemnly and looked out the window, with a dejected look in her eye.

The expression was another thing Yuffie was too scared to question; she nodded any way thankful for the answer. So she was Antoinette's mother? She knew she had to have had some connection, the resemblance was undeniable. The shape of her face, those eyes, she probably had the same hair too, it was hard to tell because of the black and white. But she looked so nice, so kind. How could a woman like that give birth to a person as horrible as Antoinette? It didn't make sense to her.

"What happened?" She asked wondering.

"She died." Tifa answered in less than a second.

Yuffie's eyes went wide; it seemed so awful; she looked so nice after all. But she felt stupid to be so surprised, if such a thing didn't happen, then where was she supposed to be? She wondered as well, if it was just the picture or not, if she was really a nice person.

* * *

After all the work had been done and they had both eaten, Tifa began with Yuffie's lessons. There was nothing out of the ordinary then. It all went as normal, Yuffie was semi glad to have something in her new life that didn't come unexpected, it was calming. Tifa tried to teach Yuffie how to write, she'd attempted before but nothing was sinking in beyond the word 'hello'. But she hardly knew if she should count it as that had been the one English word she'd known before coming here. The written language was coming out more confusing than the language itself. Her mind was getting jumbled over how each letter made a sound on its own, for she had grown up learning phonetic scripts. It'd sink in eventually Yuffie hoped, but for now the lessons circulated more on the basics of the language. Each time it was expanded just a little, that was if she had remembered all what she had learnt in the lesson before. The pace was slow going but Tifa obviously still showed some worry for going too fast.

Yuffie was smarter than she looked; it wasn't overly hard; words couldn't describe how happy she was that she was such a fast learner. She didn't need to know the majority of the language, only enough to get by, and the faster she learnt that the earlier she could leave this town behind.

About the short conversation they had had before about the picture Yuffie had been holding, she was yet to get anymore replies to her questions. She was curious to an extreme, she wanted to know more about the woman in the picture, and how she died. But Tifa dodged the questions, it appeared she knew the answers to them, and it wasn't like she was simply not bothered to give a stranger the truth, it was that it seemed she didn't even want to say one word on the subject.

At first, Yuffie hadn't noticed, but nowadays she felt stupid not to have taken notice earlier, but something was hidden behind the maid's eyes. Maybe it was hurt, anger or even fear; it was too obscurer to see. But something was undeniably wrong with the young woman. At the beginning of Yuffie's stay here, she had put on smiles which she now knew were all fake. She didn't appear to truly hold that emotion. Her eyes were dreadfully blank; she didn't care to pretend she felt something the days of late.

It made Yuffie wonder even more what was wrong with this mansion. Something was happening that she didn't know. She wanted to know, but just the same she was too scared to find out. If it could make someone unreasonably angry, and the other void, just what had to be happening?

* * *

Yuffie ran down the main staircase with a thick coat in her arms. Tifa had ended the lessons early today for they needed to go into town for food. She was going to wait for her on the seat next to the door. Tifa said she had something she needed to finish up, Yuffie didn't feel need to question so she had left simply enough, and now here she was stuck waiting.

She sighed sourly, a blizzard was starting, so they'd have to be quick, and even so she didn't have any doubts that they'd be stuck in town. The path was dangerous as is, falling snow, icy temperatures and zero visibility only made a horrible trip just that much worse.

Yuffie leaned back, she wasn't the most patient of people, that she certainly knew and so would anyone that had to suffer with her for a prolonged amount of time. Suffer? It wasn't like that now was it? She didn't feel like talking, Frankly Antoinette scared her, Tifa wouldn't respond and for the master of the house, well she never saw him. So he would there be for her to talk to? Herself, she wouldn't resort to that. The house's echoes were unnerving.

Just as she began to sink into her thoughts, she heard yelling not too far away. Yuffie's mind first went to thinking it was Antoinette, until she realised the voice was too high for that, plus it didn't sound angry, it sounded desperate. There was a man's voice in the argument as well, was it the master?

Now a part of her said leaving this room would be best for she might hear something she shouldn't, but curiosity got the better of her and she found herself stuck where she was, eavesdropping.

"But Vincent!" A young girl's voice -one younger than her- started, "Please can't you listen to me for once? She needs to be better protected!"

Yuffie heard something slam, what it was was impossible to determine, but obvious the girl had pissed off the other badly.

"Go away; I do not want to hear this now." A deep voice growled.

"Listen to me can't you? If Rosso finds out she's here she'll do what she did last time! Come on I know you don't want something like that happening." The girl begged. The man went silent, but it was clear her plea was getting her nowhere.

"Leave Shelke, I want you to drop this." She was commanded.

She made a whining sound, but knew she'd get nothing out of this, not with someone being so stubborn.

She opened the door to the room they'd been arguing in, to see someone staring blankly at her with a shocked expression.

Yuffie blinked in surprise, as the girl who had just walked out of the library, turned out to be the girl who had brought her here.

"You.." Shelke stumbled to form a sentence; she hadn't known anyone was in hearing distance. She was sure the others in the house were further away. She bit her lip, taking a guess from the black-haired girl's expression she was going to question the argument she'd overheard, there wasn't any way to know if she understood any of it for her. She had no intention to say anything, so she made sure what she said next would change the subject. Not knowing her English knowledge she asked in Wutanese,

"Are you alright?"

Yuffie nodded slowly, making a sound with her throat to symbolise yes. But still, despite Shelke's attempts, she didn't deter the question on Yuffie's lips.

"What was that?"

Shelke looked to the side; she'd feel bad to lying to such expectant eyes; so she'd end the conversation at quick as she could. With one sentence she hoped.

"It's not important. Never mind." She stated and opened the double doors, letting icy wind blow inside, Yuffie shivered before tilting her head back up and asking the redhead.

"Will you'll be alright?"

The reply was not verbal, all she got back was a nod before the doors were shut and she was left alone in the room.

Just before the sudden silence got too much for her, Yuffie heard Tifa coming down the stairs. Feeling glad, she got up and smiled. Tifa smiled back, a smile that didn't reach her eyes. But she was glad for it anyway. She put on the coat she had been holding and the two left the building, to walk along the freezing path to town.

* * *

The path was covered in a thick layer of white, and the falling snow was obscuring her from seeing in front of her. Yuffie kept at Tifa's footsteps, trusting her to know what direction they were heading in. She hugged her coat tighter to her, even with the thick clothing she felt as if the wind was going right through her, turning even her bones into ice. The tips of her fingers were red, so she blowed on them to try to warm them up, but it was too cold for it to work so she stuffed her hands into her coat, where they'd be better off.

Yuffie trudged on, she had to lift her feet high each step so she could keep at a pace faster than a snail. She'd never been in snow so deep; this was the worst she'd had to deal with here. She cursed in her head that the blizzard had hit while they were half way to town.

When she lucked out to hit a thin path with a much less snow covering it, she ran to catch up with Tifa, who was faring far better in the weather then she. It helped that she was tall, but mostly that she'd had to deal with the weather for a time far longer than herself. Then a thought ran through her head, how long had she had to deal with it? Yuffie knew the woman was a local of the town, but no other town people took this path for anything, so it had to mean she'd worked at the mansion for some time now. Was that why she seemed so off.

"Tifa?" Yuffie spoke up over the worsening blizzard.

"Yes?" She answered, without even a hint of curiosity evident.

"Why are you at the manor?" The younger girl questioned, inquiringly.

Tifa looked down to her waiting face, for one second she did look surprised, and for once Yuffie knew it was not faked.

"I needed money; my father was sick and couldn't work. He needed medicine very badly." She answered without further thought.

Yuffie nodded, but felt there was more to it than simply that.

"Is he good now? You look like you have been here a long time."

Tifa eyed her, like she'd said something wrong, the answer was quickly given.

"He died. After that I tried to look for other work in town because I didn't need money as bad. There was none. So I stayed."

Yuffie bit her lip and looked down at her feet; she could barely see her shoes under the snow that constantly fell. She decided to drop the subject, it was slight, but there had been bitterness in her voice.

* * *

When they got to town Yuffie was immediately glad, for some reason the town felt so much warmer than the manor. Maybe it was just her mind claiming such, but whatever the reason was, she was happy about it. Tifa walked along a path of wooden planks, outside a line of stores. She walked into what Yuffie had to guess was a general store, for the sign outside was too faded to see anything. Yuffie went inside as well but stood near the door, waiting for Tifa to finish.

A man stepped inside and stared at her for the longest time, just as she was becoming severely uncomfortable he moved to the front of the store and left her alone. She wouldn't deny that had creeped her out, considering he had no reason to do so. This whole town had to have something wrong with it.

Yuffie blew on her fingers to get colour back in them after the trip here had left them frozen.

"We're leaving now." Tifa's voice popped up commanding her, Yuffie nodded, not overly caring as the town scared her just the same, only bothered she had to go into the blizzard again.

* * *

Yuffie carried a basket of food, one Tifa had given her to hold as now the blizzard was worse than ever and carrying both would prove troublesome as she needed to put in much more thought to the direction she was heading in.

The tip of the mansion could be seen in the distance, only just and at times the blizzard hid it from site again. The weather had never been this bad before. Yuffie only just managed to keep herself from falling into the many layers that tried to suck her in. One hand clung to Tifa, who now was having serious trouble herself.

"Can you see?" She screamed over the ferocious wind, she meant to say the mansion but forgot properly how to ask it at the last second.

"No better than you can." Tifa yelled back, attempting to trudge on.

The older one seemed to be heavily bothered at this point. To Yuffie it felt that it had to be even more than just the dangerous weather that threatened them, there was something else to it as well. She tried to think up the words to put it in a question but her panicky mind made her forget them all. Luckily Tifa looked back for a second and guessed her thoughts correctly from her expression.

"There's a frozen lake here. But I don't know where it is, I can't see. I'm scared of falling in."

Yuffie nodded grimy and her grip of Tifa's coat tightened, she didn't need to understand the whole of that sentence to be afraid.

They trod on in the ferocious weather; Yuffie now and then lost her footing and came close to pulling Tifa down along with her. But despite being scared herself, her experience helped and she stayed up each time Yuffie fell. The mansion was becoming more and more visible in the distance. Tifa visibly became calmer as she knew it wouldn't be long now, and her sense of direction wasn't messed up.

The weather dropped the closer they came, and eventually Yuffie's hand was too cold to keep hold of Tifa's so she wrapped her coat around it and tried to keep up the same pace. She began to trail behind the other as they got to the entrance, she couldn't help but feel she had been frozen solid.

Tifa grabbed onto her wrist and assisted her the last leg, seeing as the girl was having severe trouble with the weather.

* * *

When Tifa shut the door behind her and the temperature heated up considerably to almost a normal inside temperature. Yuffie collapsed onto the seat by the door, blowing on her hands to warm them up. The older woman looked down to her, frowning. She took hold of one of her hands and inspected it closely. Yuffie tilted her head, slightly curious about what she was doing.

Tifa sighed, "Frostbite." She deduced.

Yuffie gave her a questioning expressing, not understanding what she'd said, "Eh?"

Tifa stood up properly picked up the basket Yuffie had placed next to her. "Wait here for a minute." She ordered before running up the stairs to leave the food in the kitchen.

Yuffie didn't have to wait too long for the other to come back; it was ten minutes at the most. Without a word Tifa grabbed onto her arm and pulled her up, bringing her with her up the staircase and down the hall until she reached her destination. Tifa opened a door to one of the bathrooms and turned on the bath's tap.

"Sorry." Tifa told her with a gloom that may or may not be faked; right now it was hard to judge. "If you don't warm up you'll get a cold, then Antoinette will get angry at me." She said as the bath filled up. Yuffie didn't get the whole sentence, but the part about Antoinette getting angry was understandable, and cleared it up for her. Cold weather really helped one get sick, and if she got sick and couldn't work, that psycho girl would no doubt go off her head at them both.

Tifa stopped the water running and stood up and moved to the door, she put on a tiny smile. "I'll get a night-gown for you; those clothes will just make things worse." She shut the door and hurried down to get what she said she would.

Yuffie stared at where she'd taken her exit for a moment longer before undressing and getting in the bathtub. The warmth was wonderful for her frozen body, the colour of her skin came back immediately. She sighed feeling relaxed and sunk in deeper. It was far better than being stuck in that blizzard. When Tifa had mentioned about there being a frozen over lake she had really gotten worried, she was scared they'd accidentally find it and fall through the ice. So in the end she was very glad that didn't happen, she wouldn't want her last memory to be that of icy water pulling her under.

A knock on the door woke her from her thoughts, "Yes?" She responded, Tifa opened the door with a nightgown in her arms. Yuffie waited for the woman to say something, but she was silent and avoided looking at her as she put down the gown and took the snow-covered garments she'd been wearing previously. She left right after.

Yuffie sunk back into the tub with a huff; she could've at least spoken to her. Sometimes silence really got on her nerves; it was why she used to be such a chatterbox. The Wutanese girl decided to enjoy the rest of the bath without thinking further about the strange maid and the little oddities in her personality slowly getting more obvious.

* * *

When she had warmed up fully Yuffie had climbed out and dried herself completely with a towel Tifa had provided before putting on the night-gown that had been left there. Currently she was heading to her room, as despite it being only evening, she was feeling rather tired and sleep felt like a good idea right now. Her room was to the left of the entrance room, the bathroom had been to the right, so to get there she had to cross the large room first. She was beginning to feel bothered by it, it had this eerie feeling all about it, and having to pass that picture of Antoinette's mother also bothered her deeply. She really did want to know about the woman, but no one would answer her.

As Yuffie past the stair case, she got a little surprise. She spotted the master of the house sitting dejectedly on the bottom step. She was a mite curious what on Gaia he was doing there, and wanted to know what that argument she'd overheard earlier was about, she didn't understand enough English to translate, plus because the two had been yelling she found it even harder to understand.

She tiptoed to the step two steps above where he sat. He didn't seem to notice her presence so she decided to alert him, but not knowing what on earth she should say she found herself stumbling over her words and making 'um' sounds.

"A..ano…." She mumbled uneasily, with a finger on her lip for she felt like she needed a barrier between them.

Of course proper words didn't need to be said at this distance for him to notice she was there. He inclined his head to see her small from standing behind him.

"What?" Vincent asked, not sounding interested in what she had to say one bit.

Yuffie forced back any annoyance she felt at her he'd said it, it'd be even ruder if she acted the same way back, plus she was ill at ease for she didn't know if this person was safe to be near or not.

"What was that argument earlier?" She slipped into Wutanese, but he didn't make any action to say he cared.

"You overheard it?"

"Yes, I was waiting for Tifa by the door, you were both very loud. But I didn't understand anything." She mumbled, feeling more uncomfortable by the second.

"That's fine; it's not anything that concerns you." He stood up to leave, but she wanted more.

"Wait, I heard her say 'Rosso', is that a person? it didn't sound like anything else."

Vincent raised an eyebrow at the fact she managed to notice the odd word out of the others, she must be a fast learner if she knew that was the only thing strange out of the words used.

"Who she is, is none of your business either." He stated and walked past her.

Despite knowing full well how rude it would be, she grabbed onto his sleeve and forced him to stay, "Who is that girl, the one that brought me here! You know something don't you? She's not normal! No one that's normal would have done what she did!" She yelled pleading with him for an answer. Like the ones she never got.

He looked back, glaring at her for trying so hard to get him to stay. He didn't want to deal with someone like her at all. He sighed, "For someone with a personality like hers she loses it very easily."

Yuffie tilted her head at the last sentence, for he'd said it in English.

"Her name's Shelke. She wants things out of me that I don't want to give. I hate her kind." He ripped his arm from her grip and stormed up the stairs, now in a considerably worsened mood. Even at the distance and the quietness of her voice, he still heard her say,

"Her kind?"

"Vampires." He answered her obviously rhetorical question.

"Vampire? But they don't exist!" She yelled in a stunned tone.

Vincent gave one last look at her before disappearing around the corner. "They do in hell."

Yuffie stared flabbergasted at the place he'd left her sight for the longest time. Yes it made sense considering what she'd done on that first night. But Vampires? They didn't exist! Right?

She bit down on her lip and looked down at her bare feet, slowly getting colder on the icy marble floor of the stairs. Little did she know that he was one of the monsters he claimed to hate.

* * *

Yuffie was happy to finally be in bed, wrapped up in warm blankets. She'd done her best to adjust the crooked window on her wall so as little outside wind got in as possible. But it was still broken there was nothing she could do about that, it got in no matter how hard she tried to fix it up.

She snuggled the blankets closer to her, to keep herself warm as she tried to get sleep to encase her in its darkness. At first it was working, but then something disrupted her from reaching the world of dreams.

A blood curdling scream.

She jumped, sitting upright in her bed, her breathing heavy from the shock. She'd been hearing screams a lot lately, and this one she could not ignore, it was so loud, so close. She scramble out of bed and fixed up her night gown which had settled to too high up on her. Without a second thought on what was the easily smarter thing to do –which was ignoring it- she dashed out of the room to find its source.

Yuffle ran the full length of hallways to reach it, she didn't hear any more screaming, but she heard the culprit continue making much quieter sounds. They were full of fear, and she didn't have a speck of doubt in her about it, they belonged to Tifa. She rounded one last corner to see the maid pushed up against a corner, and the master keeping her against it. The woman was crying big fat tears and struggling to get out of his grasp, but was shaking so badly she could barely move her arms.

Yuffie gasped at the sight, a hand covered her mouth and her eyes were wide open from deep shock. Tifa saw her then, and a violent shudder shook her body as her tears fell faster. The master noticed her then too, and showed Yuffie the first emotion she'd seen from him. Alarm.

Tifa used the moment of distraction to break free of his grip; she slapped him in the face and ran unsteadily on her feet to Yuffie, and collapsed in front of her. Yuffie helped her to her feet; the sobbing woman clung to her, petrified.

Yuffie took a look back at the hallway, to see the master hadn't moved, he just stood there with the most peculiar expression. He looked hurt, but what reason did he have to feel that way? He was the one in the wrong, so what if he got caught?

She glared at him, with strong feelings of disbelief and anger filling her. She held Tifa's hand; she was crying so much she could barely walk as she had no ability to think of anything else, Yuffie led her back to her room, where she sat down on the Yuffie bed. She continued to cry, but her face had lost the fear it'd held before, now she was scarily blank.

It didn't take an idiot to know what he'd tried to do to her; he'd attempted to rape her. And from how Tifa looked right this second, it was clear it wouldn't have been the first time either.

If this was hell, he belonged here.

* * *

**Thee subject of this story is hilariously different to what's currently happening here. Viva loca just came on and I had to dance to it. With ,my big sister, drunk mother and her drunk friend. I'm exhausted.**

**Reviews and I'll give you a puppy.**

**jya ne,**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	4. The truth

** (5,736 words) I thought of writing two chapters of this in a row, but then I decided not to because it'd feel like I was writing one whole big chapter, and I knew it'd make me go crazy.**

**I wrote this two months ago along with the authors note so anything mentioned happened two months ago.**

**My friend made me go watch Breaking Dawn part 2 with her last Saturday. I was wriggling around in my seat laughing my head off during the fight. Then I got disappointed.**

**If anyone is interested I will continue with the fabulous little story in the bottom author's note, otherwise,**

**Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this Vincent is just my husband.**

* * *

**4) The truth**

* * *

A wisp of cold wind whooshed about the room, awakening Yuffie from her sleep. The teenager rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and tilted her head to look out her room's broken window. The sun had risen high over the horizon, for she couldn't see its glow through the clouds out her window but the light proved day had long since begun. She blinked her eyes in surprise, unaware she'd slept in for so long. Nowadays, Tifa woke her up at sunrise, which would've been hours ago. Her weary mind took a moment to remember why she'd been allowed the sleep-in. It was then her mind registered the feeling of slender fingers grasping her wrist. Twisting around on the bed she noticed Tifa sleeping soundly by her side, snoring softly, her face calm.

Yuffie smiled sadly at the older woman, last night she had stopped the master from raping her, and she'd been too terrified to leave the room after she'd brought her here. Yuffie had let her share the bed for the night, it had been a mite uncomfortable but knowing she was helping someone made her bare it without complaints. She watched her as she slept, pondering over if she should wake her or not. She looked so peaceful lying there; she'd feel bad for rousing her. Tifa was beautiful, she began to think, the shape of her face, her unique red-brown eyes, and that perfect black hair. She was a little envious, not like she'd admit to it. As she'd been told before, when Tifa's father had died and she didn't need as much money, she'd said no one would hire her when she tried to get other work. Yuffie deeply wondered over it, she was an intelligent and beautiful young woman; wouldn't someone want to have someone like that?

Did they think she had been tainted after spending so long in this hell? Sadly enough, it seemed plausible.

After another moment of thought, she decided it would be best to wake her now. After her ordeal it would be horrible to make her have to deal with Antoinette in a bad mood, it wasn't midday yet, they would have enough time to get what needed to be done completed before the girl awoke.

Yuffie shook her shoulder, and whispered softly, "Tifa?" When she received no response she shook her again, "Tifa?" She spoke louder.

Gradually, the maid roused, opening her eyes slowly, as if the light of the room was too much for her eyes to bear. She blinked a few times, as if confused, before tilting her head and stared puzzled up at Yuffie, who was watching her with a concerned expression.

"Yuffie?" She mumbled, finding her voice.

"You went to sleep in my bed, you wouldn't leave." Remembrance was not something that shone in her eyes.

Yuffie cracked a tiny smile, hoping maybe it'd help her feel less bad. "You need to wake up. It's late."

When the sentence left her lips, Tifa at last responded, she jumped up out of the bed and gaped at the scene out the window, "Oh no Antoinette's going to have my head!" She turned to run out the door, but before she could move a muscle Yuffie lunged forward and seized her wrist yelling,

"Wait!"

The expression Tifa gave her when she turned her head read 'are you crazy!?' She tugged but the grip on her arm did not loosen.

"Let go of me, I need to go make Antoinette breakfast before she has my head!"

Yuffie did not falter, in fact her grasp tightened, and her expression changed from begging to serious.

"How long has it been going on?" She questioned severely, Tifa didn't try to answer and continued to attempt to pull herself away.

"Answer!" She raised her voice.

In her panic Tifa hadn't realised what she'd been referring to, the lack of change on her face made that fact known, so she cleared it up for her.

"He tried to rape you didn't he? The master?" This time she reacted, her facial expression turned pained and her gaze lowered shamefully.

"Yes." She answered simply. But it didn't give enough; she hadn't answered the question in full.

"Why? How long has it happening for?"

"A long time, it doesn't matter! Let me go!" Tifa flared up and gave another attempt of freeing herself. This time, because Yuffie was no longer suspected of it, her hand had been released on the first tug. Her face showed triumph, grinning she pivoted and ran for the door. But Yuffie was quick and beat her to it. Tifa stopped mid stride and almost lost her balance, swaying dangerously.

"Out of the way!" She screamed irate, but Yuffie stubbornly kept her ground.

"Answer me, all of it." She pleaded, her voice kind.

Tifa's shoulder sagged in defeat. "Fine."

Yuffie hid the relief that she felt. This wasn't the right moment for that emotion. After a moment's hesitation, Tifa answered her, the full question.

"It started not long after I began to work at the mansion. It hurt like hell, but I had no one I could talk to. It'd give my father a heart attack, and everyone else was already gone. So I said nothing and let it continue, at first I thought it was because there was no one else, he had lost his wife after all. Though when I thought about it, I remembered that there were others back in town that'd be much more willing than me; they made much more sense. So then he began to confuse me, and I was so distracted by that confusion that I couldn't even shed a tear when it would happen. Soon, I noticed something about the way he looked at me when it'd happen. Those eyes weren't his own."

Yuffie titled her head at the last sentence, but said nothing and let Tifa continue,

"He's possessed I think, by something that can't be very different to a demon. I'm not scared of him, I bare him no ill will. But I'm scared that demon will be my end, I fear that when he's done with me he'll take my life." When she finished, the two became deathly silent. Tifa no longer wanted to speak, and Yuffie had no comment.

Possessed? By a demon? Was that girl possessed when she killed those men? Are they the same?

Tifa coughed to grab her attention, realising well enough that Yuffie became a captive to her own thoughts.

"I should hurry, she'll wake soon. Perhaps you should help; we'll be done faster, and should evade the worst of her mood." She smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes. The change of topic; was still a help.

Yuffie nodded yes, and allowed Tifa to pass as they headed for the kitchen. Though her mind remained focussed on the idea of best evading Antoinette's sour mood, the earlier discussion plagued her still.

Are they the same? The master and the girl who'd brought her here? But as he'd said last night, that girl was a Vampire. Did that mean he was too?

* * *

When they came to the kitchen, Tifa got right to work preparing breakfast for Antoinette, who was soon to wake. She ordered the clueless teenager with her what to use, how much to use, and where each thing was. She didn't laugh at the problems that arose with her lack of knowledge; Tifa had realised long ago, knowing the situation most Wutanese citizens were in, that only nobles and royals spoke only their language. Despite what had happened and where she was now, Tifa knew she was nothing more than a rich girl who had been down on her luck, so she was bound to come across many difficulties working as a maid; like cooking. It'd clearly been done for her during her childhood so how was she to know what utensil did what?

They were half way done when Antoinette stormed into the dining room, both heard her clearly over the sounds of cooking.

"Oi, maid, how dare you not be done yet! I'm hungry you moron! If you don't finish in five minutes I'm taking your food privileges away for a week!"

Tifa sped up when her words registered in her mind, "I'm terribly sorry, I woke up late today. But please don't take them away for a week; humans can't go for that long."

As she put on the finishing touches she could see Antoinette's scowling face from the window set in the wall between the kitchen and dining room.

"Well maybe you're better off dead." The girl spat, arms crossed in displeasure.

"Please don't say that, you can't keep this up if you've only one maid who can't speak English correctly."

Antoinette sighed deeply, and left her alone after that. She moved to sit on the grand chair at the end of the wooden dining table. She muttered words just loud enough to make out from the kitchen.

"Then Papa can get a new maid who's better than you, lazy moron."

Tifa shook off the comment and loaded all the food on a plate and brought it out for her. Antoinette eyed her in disgust then waved her away. When she was not facing her Tifa frowned, angered by her rudeness.

She strode back into the kitchen and began to tell Yuffie where everything was to be put and what needed to be cleaned. When the kitchen was tidied up Tifa began washing the dirty dishes, and to help Yuffie dried them. Tifa gave them one last inspection to see if she had done a good job, if so she'd return them to the cupboards, if not she'd give them a quick wipe over before returning them.

* * *

The rest of the day passed by quickly, taken up by cleaning and a short lesson. Tifa had been greatly distracted and couldn't get her mind to work straight; she ended it early claiming she needed rest. Considering all their work was done for the day there would've been no problems with it. Yuffie let her be without question, knowing her mind remained to be focussed on their conversation in the morning.

The coming days passed by in a startling similar fashion. Tifa was becoming more and more unfocussed, and when Yuffie would question her she received no response, or one made up of purer nonsense. Some days she managed fine, on others not so well. She would tense up at each little sound if she didn't know what caused it, she'd be silent for long periods of time, and sometimes not say a word all day. On the worst days, it was clear it'd happened again, what Yuffie had stopped before she'd gotten to this level. Inside she'd hoped that finding out about the rapes might deter the master from continuing, but that was a stupid wish and nothing more. He had no control over himself as Tifa had said. It had to be the reason for her melancholy mood. Every now and then she looked to be improving, but then the next day Yuffie would see her vacantly staring out a window, without moving for an hour at least, completely outside her head. She was wrong to think she'd get better, and she was wrong to think anything in this hell was going to stop.

"No look how I say it, watch my mouth movements." Tifa told her during a lesson one day, she was helping her improve her pronunciation after Antoinette had gone of her head because she said 'Sorry' and it sounded far more like 'solly'.

This was one of her better days, for the lesson had gone on for over an hour, unlike the insignificant time of 10 minutes the day before. Yuffie listened closely to her and did her best to follow, having trouble every now and then because Tifa would say a word she didn't remotely know what it meant. The older one probably even knew the teen was clueless and hadn't been taught them, but her tired mind couldn't help it.

"Ra." Tifa said, than mouthed it slowly in hopes to improve the chance of success.

"Ra." Yuffie repeated only combining the 'R' sound with an 'L' sound. Tifa sighed exasperatedly as she again did what she had all hour.

"Try to split apart the sounds please." She said before mouthing 'R' and 'L' to show her the subtle differences between each, nodding her head when she said 'R' and shaking it when she said 'L' to get over the problems of the language barrier they had.

Yuffie nodded and tried once again to make the sound. She improved seeing as the 'R' was far more pronounced, but the 'L' was still clearly in there.

"Good that's an improvement, but it'll still get you in trouble with Antoinette, now try again."

Yuffie pouted and muttered under her breath in her own language so Tifa wouldn't make sense of her complaining "I am trying."

Tifa gave her a sympathetic look, of course it wasn't like she had perfectly understood what Yuffie had said, seeing her Wutanese was quite horrible, but she'd gotten the gist.

"Why don't we finish for the day?" She asked in a kind tone, one Yuffie hadn't heard for some time now on account of the tired, dreary voice she'd been speaking with the last couple of weeks.

Tifa smiled brightly at her, no doubt forced but seeing it was good enough for now.

"Yes." Yuffie returned it.

Tifa got up and picked up the sheets of paper she had scattered about so she wouldn't get in trouble later for it. The other waited for her to be done before she got off the ground so she'd have better room to stand in this tiny room. When Tifa was strolling towards the door she hopped up from the ground, and with some bad luck knocked down a vase on top of the cabinet besides her. Tifa flipped around when she heard the shattering object, and Yuffie yelp.

Hastily she crossed the room and inspected the hand Yuffie was holding close to her chest, showing signs of pain. She brought it close and eyed it, seeing she had cut herself, a drop of blood flowed out. She bit her lip and sighed inwardly.

"Don't worry it isn't bad, the blood will stop very soon. Just go to bed, it's late, you'll be fine."

Yuffie nodded, understanding half of what she meant.

She waited until Tifa left before she followed. When she exited she couldn't see where Tifa had gone off to, more than likely she'd gone to her own room to retire for the night, liking the idea herself she ambled along the path to her own. Outside the night wind howled and whistled through the trees. The winter was passing and the mansion wasn't as cold as it used to be; which was something she was more than glad for; she didn't need to cling to her blankets at night just for the tiny remnants of warmth they retained.

She slowed her pace as she neared her room; gazing at the stain glass windows of the main hall. As beautiful and magnificent as always, they served as a momentary distraction from the truth of this house. On the windows a scene played out, one full of angels. It was deceiving almost; this was hell, not heaven.

Yuffie stoped entirely just as she reached the middle of the entrance hall, her arms crossed behind her back she stared wonderingly at the glorious windows. Her mind chose to ponder why they were in a place like this, when all else was falling apart or already in ruins. It was so out of place...staggeringly so. As she fell deeper into her thoughts which brought her nowhere, her eyes fell upon the black and white picture of a woman who looked remarkably similar to Antoinette only her face was more oval and her eyes full of kindness. She'd been told she had been the Master's wife, but had died years ago. She began to think that maybe the master had been the first to live in this house, and she was the one that had made the windows be built here. On the rare days where the sun shone, the light would piece the window and every colour of a rainbow would cover the dreary room below. Who wouldn't have wanted some colour in a gloomy town like this?

Done with entertaining the thought, she resumed her walk to her room, but was stopped herself mid step because of the sound of creaking. Curiosity piqued, she eyed the bottom floor, but saw nothing from her perspective. Yuffie crept down the stairway, light on her feet with her hand holding the balustrade. When she reached the bottom, she surveyed the area again. The result again was nothing, walking a circle around the room; she found no trace of what had caused the noise. Putting it down to her imagination she ran back to the stairs, but halted when she heard another sound. She didn't know how to describe it exactly, it wasn't one she was used to hearing, but it reminded her of when Tifa flicked through pages during her lessons.

When she registered it was from the library, she headed there instead. Ahead of opening the door, she took one last look out the window, despite the colours blocking her from having a clear view outside, she knew from the lack of light it was very late at night. Disregarded how tired she felt, she allowed her curiosity to have its fun.

She opened the door a crack, and looked in, at first she spotted nothing but the shelves and the books they contained. She then opened it further and inclined her head to see to the left of her. The master was reading a book in complete silence, it occurred to her the sound had come from the flipping of pages. Against her better judgement, she tiptoed in, an army of questions on the tip of her tongue.

He didn't make any action to say he'd noticed she was there, but in her mind she knew he was plenty aware of her presence.

"Um.." She stumbled to form a sentence, all her thoughts rushed at her all at once, leaving her to confused to make use of her voice.

Vincent looked over the top of the page, but said nothing.

As Yuffie continued to fail to form a sentence, a sudden feeling of frustration hit her, and in an angry tone she yelled.

"What were you trying to do with Tifa!?" She returned to her own Wutanese on accident.

"I'm sure you already figured that out, there's no need for questions. Leave." He replied in his deep voice, returning to his book.

Yuffie bit her lip and clenched her hands.

"Why did you do it!?" She questioned shouting.

For a moment, he made no response at all, and when he did, he merely answered, "I barely know myself."

"Then why does it keep happening?" She begged for an answer, a good and proper one, her face infuriated and upset

Vincent lifted his eyes to her, she guessed he had paused in thought, but with half his face hidden and it being expressionless anyway; it was hard to know with him.

"Maybe I'm a monster." His tone then, darkened with resentment, but it did nothing to discourage Yuffie from this, for it wasn't directed to her, it was directed to him.

She fell silent, her eyes filled with pity she failed to hide. He despised himself, in that one moment it was made abundantly obvious. Everyone here was screwed up horrifically in one way or another. His sentence too, reminded her of an earlier conversation, the one about that girl who'd brought her here; now also happened to be her chance to see if her speculations were correct.

"Um.." She bit her lip before she could say it, her uncomforted feelings finally made their way to the surface.

He eyed her before switching to read his book. But she wasn't done yet.

"You told me that girl was a Vampire, I've tried to tell myself its true, I can tell you weren't lying after all."

He lifted up his eyes again, wondering where she was heading with this.

"I started wondering why you'd know such a person; she seems to have an interest in you of some kind. So my mind started trying to work out what was the most plausible reason." She paused and swallowed the lump forming in her throat.

"The only one I got; was that you must be one as well."

No response. She waited, and still nothing. On the wall a clock ticked, but they remained in perfect silence for the longest time. Eventually getting sick of it, Yuffie snapped, took a great step closer and screamed in his face.

"Are you one or are you not!?"

Even so, his reaction was slow, further maddening her. Vincent placed the book on a coffee table to his left and lifted his head to stare directly into her grey eyes. At first, they were filled with nothing nothing but anger, but soon his crimson eyes overflowing with self-loathing got to her and she faltered. Feeling intimidated, Yuffie lowered her gaze and took a step back. Only his arm stretched out he caught her wrist in his grasp. She yelped and used her body weight to tug against the grip, but thanks to her tiny form it wasn't near enough.

"Hey what are you doing!?" She shrieked as panic gripped her.

He said nothing, and with a slight flick of his wrist, dragged her closer. She murmured fearful words that fell on deaf ears. The way he looked at her terrified her, something dark had come out from behind his red eyes, he was no longer himself. His eyes were crazed.

His hand slipped from her wrist to her hand and both his held it gently in-between, though his hold on her was considerably looser, fear had nailed her feet to the floor. He moved one hand away and eyed the injury she'd done to her hand earlier, the blood had long since stopped and had crusted over, forming a scab. The licked the injury, giving her a clear look of his fangs. Yuffie winced, her body began to tremble.

"Please, let me go." She blubbered, her question answered without the need for words.

He did anything but. Vincent bit into her skin, she gasped as his fangs scraped the bone and he began to suck. She could feel each drop of blood leave her as he drank it up greedily. It was the most unsettling sound she'd ever heard, but dread had her rooted to the spot, she wouldn't have been able to move a single muscle even if she was to try.

"Stop." She begged fearfully, and gathered up all her strength to move her arm, all she managed was a tiny slight movement, which only caused him to bite in deeper. She cried as the pain worsened, and she started to feel lightheaded.

He made no sign to show he had any intention of stopping, she knew she was becoming anaemic.

"Please." Her voice wavered as she became increasingly weak.

Vincent ignored her entirely; he removed his mouth but didn't let her go. He licked up the blood dripping off the wound like it was a mouth-watering delicacy. In that moment he didn't notice his grip had slackened, but despite her weakness, Yuffie did. She snatched her hand away with so much force she fell over backwards.

She cried as her injured hand hit the floor hard, her blood oozing on the mat. She attempted to get up to her feet, but a wave of dizziness hit her and she collapsed, slowly she was losing consciousness. She wished Vincent would stop there, he didn't. When she glanced up at him, his eyes were the same, filled with darkness. He stood, and wiped his bloody mouth on his sleeve, before climbing on top of her. Yuffie wimped as he held her close, his fangs nicking the soft skin of her neck, she could feel a drop of blood slip down the nape of her neck. Right in this moment she completely believed this was her end. But she was spared, for the demon inside of him decided it wanted something else from her.

Vincent haltered for a moment, his hand gripping the low collar of her dress. His eyes were shut, he was tense, as if he was having an inner battle. Yuffie hoped, he'd win over the demon inside of him, she knew he wasn't bad, not completely at least, though his sanity was questionable she believed what Tifa had said. He lost control over his body; another force was what made him commit such horrific acts. Yuffie sobbed, too terrified to make an attempt at escaping, though it wasn't like she could with his weight crushing her. She got the answer of who had won over the other, when he tightened his grip on her collar and ripped her dress right down the middle. It revealed her chest and stomach, in fear and embarrassment she crossed her arms to hide her naked body but he grabbed both arms and flung them to the floor, then took hold of them to hold her down, clutching them so tightly his nails dug into her skin. She bit her lip at they cut into her, spilling more blood. Vincent had his mouth next to her ear, and frankly she feared he was going to bite into her neck. But he had stopped moving completely, for five or so minutes he was frozen, breathing harshly by her ear like he was in great pain.

Her thoughts were proved wrong, when he whispered a sentence witch struck her with even more terror, "Are you a virgin?"

Her heart stopped, and tears began to streak her cheeks. He repeated it after she returned only silence. She sobbed and mumbled fearful nonsense under her breath. So he repeated once again, this time raising his voice to a yell. She flinched and scared of what further prolonging would do, she replied screaming,

"No! I'm not alright!?" It was the worst thing she could've done in this situation.

He released her arms and immediately she lunged forward and swiped at him, but he caught her hand and threw it back to the ground.

"There's no point in trying." He muttered, in a voice not his own.

It was deep, monstrous; and made her stomach sink, and her body tremble far more than it already was.

Vincent grabbed the bottom of her dress and flipped it up; she was more than aware what the demon wanted now. He wanted to rape her. She shut her eyes, and blocked her ears with her hands, so she wouldn't have to see or hear anything. If only she could stop herself from feeling, it wasn't like she hadn't been in a similar situation before, she knew what it felt like. Only those times had been consensual. It hurt her as he forced his way inside; she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She tried to beg him to stop, but her mouth was jammed shut.

When he started moving the pain didn't subside, it got worse. 'It shouldn't hurt this much should it?' She thought to herself, blaming it on her unready body and his forcefulness.

Her hands clawed at the skin above her ears as she pressed harder to block out the sound of his grunts, her stomach plunging each time he did. She felt sick, she felt disgusting, and she felt dirty. She felt like she had passed the point of no return by coming here, and now he was ridding her of the last thing she had left.

She cried; a part of her just wishing to drown him out, a part for everything she had lost.

It felt like an eternity had passed, and when it was over she didn't even know if she should've been glad. She didn't know what she was meant to be feeling at all. Her mind was a blank. He was an exhausted mess on top of her, only stopping himself from crushing her by catching himself on his arms; he no longer had any hold of her. And she took it as her chance. Ripping herself from under him she slapped him in the face and ran for the door, wiping away her tears and holding together her ripped dress. He watched her leave wordlessly, finally calming down and becoming his self again, only too late to stop anything. What'd he had done was irreversible.

Yuffie swung open the doors, and almost ran into the girl standing outside them. Her sobbing stopped and her expression was replaced by shock, when she realised it was the girl who'd brought her here. She wanted to slap her too then, because this was all her fault. The girl looked her up and down, and offered her a sympathetic smile, understanding full well what had happened. Yuffie feelings of hatred evaporated, grasping that of course, she hadn't intended for this to happen, all she was trying to do was help.

She took a step closer and whispered "Sorry." So quietly it'd been close to inaudible. She spotted her fangs then, and was reminded of back before the rape, her sick feelings returned full force and her tears resumed. The girl without a word took another step closer, with a hand on her shoulder she whispered into her ear.

"You're lucky you know that?"

"How?" Yuffie spat, and shook with a sob.

So she continued, "At least he retained his human self, if he let himself be consumed by his darkness, you'd be dead by now." She patted her on the shoulder and slid past her, striding to the library door with a serious expression planted on her features.

Not remotely thinking of questioning why she was here, or what she was going to do now; Yuffie ran from the room to her own. She collapsed on her bed, bawling her eyes out. She was covered in sweat and blood, and had never felt dirtier. She held back the urge to vomit, so she wouldn't ruin her source of warmth in this freezing house.

She was angry too, more so than she'd ever been, she shook with rage. She wanted to hit someone, even if they'd done nothing in all of this, she didn't want to see the master's face again. She felt as though he was trying to wipe away her memories; her times with Hiroge were the most important to her, and that one night when he'd taken her was one of the most important, she wanted to hold on to it. But now the thought of being with someone in that way was sickening, and she didn't even want to think of it, no matter who it was with.

And with her memory of his face faded with each month that passed by, she had never felt more guilty.

* * *

"Vincent?" The questioning and slightly angered voice of a young girl asked from the other side of the room.

The man in question was on the ground, curled up in a corner, hiding among the room's shadows. He didn't care to respond, he didn't care to show he noticed her.

She repeated herself, with more force in her voice. "Vincent!?"

Still nothing, she knew he felt guilty. She tiptoed up to him, and sat beside him, wrapping her arms around her knees in a cute childlike way. His only reaction was glancing at her. She watched him with her curious bright blue eyes and waited patiently. Half an hour passed by, before he did anything, she had refused to move or say a word in that time. She waited for him to talk, or she wouldn't leave. In the end he must've known that was her plan.

"What do you want Shelke?"

"When I came I only wanted to talk, but seeing that girl come out in tears with her dress ripped has made me want to talk of other matters. Why'd you let him have control? I was trying to help her, and now you've messed that plan up."

She waited for his response, which luckily came faster than his last.

"I tried to keep him in, but I failed." He growled, with hatred directed to himself.

"I'm sorry." Shelke whispered. He eyed her irritated, and spat.

"This has nothing to do with you, you've done nothing."

She nodded, "I know, but I haven't ever tried to help, because of me you haven't been able to cut you connections with the one that made you like this. I know it's her fault everything has become like this, so that's why I'm sorry."

After a moment he asked a question different to what she'd expected of him. "Why are you with her? You're not like them aren't you?"

Shelke hummed, thinking up a way to explain it. "We're more similar than you think, the reason that girl is scared of me is because I lost it the day we met. I smelt blood, and lost my sense of self. I haven't seen someone look so scared for their life in years, it was worse than the state you'd left her in."

He didn't respond, so she continued the conversation with a question of her own. "Vincent, why are you here? In Nibelheim I mean, you've never liked it have you?"

He shook his head, she expected that to be his answer but to her surprise he made a vocal one.

"This was where she grew up."

"Lucrecia?"

He nodded. "I could remember her saying it was always cold there, but she said it was a special place to her."

Shelke fell silent for a minute, before saying, "I'm sorry for what Rosso did to you two, maybe Antoinette wouldn't be so messed up if she had her mother."

Vincent didn't glare at her for insulting his daughter; he knew well enough she had problems aplenty.

"I don't think anyone can be saved once they're in hell."

* * *

**Yum yum yum delisiaso. Spelt that wrong I just know it.**

**That was for the blood, not the rape.**

**Speaking of blood, for a vampire movie breaking dawn didn't have enough blood in it.**

**If there's any Twiheart's reading this, skip this because it's bound to have a hell of a lot of spoilers in it**

**So my friend made me go watch a movie for a series I don't like. I remember talking to a poster, I said to Kristen, I'm going to sew buttons to your eyes, I said to Taylor, I'll chop off your head and replace it with Taeyang's because you look like an alpaca. I said to Rob….actually I forgot what I said to him, I just know it was positive.**

**Now to what happened in the theatre. The part where Jacob stripped before turning into a wolf, this woman did a wolf whistle and made friend yelled out damn. Everyone burst out laughing.**

**Renesmee is the cutest kid I've ever seen.**

**Kristen actually did a little bit of acting this time, she can now express anger to a degree (still not good enough) and figured out how to turn her frown upside down a crack. Yes she smiled, like five times, it made me stare wide eyed at the screen. Though there was one bit with Renesmee where she should have had this motherly smile, but she didn't smile at all. She had her blank face. And it really irked me. I'm very critical of Kristen because I'm a wannabe actress and she has more than she deserves. Taylor is better than I thought, I was quite impressed, Rob did well too but I already knew he was a good actor.**

**First beheading, made me go, 'oh okay, where's the blood?'**

**Second beheading, 'HOLY SHIT! …Where's the blood?' There is a reason for my reaction, Twihearts will understand.**

**Third, *Chuckle*, 'Where the blood?'**

**Fourth *Laugh*, 'Where's the blood?"**

**Fifth, *Laugh insanely*, 'where's the blood?'**

**All the others because I lost count, *Hahahahahahahahaha* *Wiggling around in the seat shaking from excitement* 'This is more violent than I thought!, where's the blood?'**

**I think there were 11, not enough I think. There wasn't any blood.**

**The pretty wolf fell down the crack.**

**The battle was epic because people kept getting beheaded, and the main evil guy walked heaps close to Edward and attacked him so I started thinking, "OMG Kill him Eddy!" Both him and Bella did it, and though I was disappointed Bella didn't die, at least it was epic.**

**Than it turned out it was all a vision, Alice did something and the evil guy was being showed it I'm not 100% on it.**

**Everyone burst out laughing.**

**When the credit started rolling I yelled out,**

**"Kristen Stewart, I'm going to sew buttons to your eyes!"**

**"Booo!"**

**"I like when the wolf when OM NOM NOM!"**

**And last but not least,**

**"Edward is a fairy."**

**After the movie I was shaking from excitement because I couldn't get over all the beheadings, so me and my friend had one of our psychotic conversations like we do, ended up talking about organ eating. Just made it worse. We kept walking, and we and my sister got separated from the other two that were with us. They panicked and we had fun going on a 'long and arduous quest' to find them. We made this joke over a chocolate slipper we found which involved making someone eat it after we'd put our foot in it and pretending to steal this chocolate stand thing because it said "FREE (with 2 packets of 30 pack chocolate)"**

**She tried to find blood red nail polish and I found this yellow one that is perfect for Kagamine Len cosplay, it is still on the tip of my thumb. I also got a minako bow. Me and my sister slept over at my friend's house and watched kid's movies. We watched both Balto's, Arthur and the invisibles, Princess and the frog, Corpse Bride and the Tigger movie. Yes, the Tigger movie, she left to put the DVD's back and came back with it, so we just had to watch it.**

**Reviews make me keep my sanity.**

**Ta ta.**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	5. The Daughter

**(6,147 words) There's some fun things in this chapter, hope you enjoy. I'm going to love writing the next two, they're certainly be longer too.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this Vincent is just my husband.**

* * *

5) The daughter

* * *

Yuffie woke up to a light knock on the door; out the window the scene outside was oddly bright, now that winter had finally left. The snow had melted and what little flowers there were in this town were beginning to bloom, as Yuffie had gotten to see when she and Tifa had to go on a quick trip to town a week back. Tifa was a little better than what she had been, though she never spoke as much as she used to she did reply to Yuffie's questions; that was something at least. Yuffie herself was relying on time to blur the memory of that night. Though she certainly remained rather jumpy, she was successfully convincing her mind not to be scared of the master. As Tifa had said, he was possessed, and that's what she chose to believe in. She knew that if that monster wanted to come out again, the moment she realised, she'd run for it, no moment of hesitation. Maybe, hopefully, she could avoid being hurt again.

She smiled a small smile to the environment outside her window, growing prettier by the day; so much better than that frozen tundra. Hopping out of bed she dressed herself and opened her door to greet Tifa, quick to start her day.

They completed chores as normal, and were mostly done by the time Tifa needed to make Antoinette's breakfast. Yuffie went with her to the kitchen now, as the older woman trusted her more with efficiently helping her, and with Antoinette's attitude only managing to get worse, she needed the help. They didn't know what it was, but apparently it was possible for the teen's personality to worsen. Once she just snapped at them the moment they did something that wasn't to the level that she wanted; now she'd do it before anything had even happened. It was infuriating to say the least, and both Tifa and Yuffie were amazed at themselves for surviving the constant onslaught of insults sent their way.

Yuffie initially attempted to think up a reason for the sudden worsening of her behaviour, but knowing so little about her made her come up with nothing. She pondered over why her father never bothered to deal with the problem of her nasty personality; either he was too occupied with his own (definitely worse) problems, or that he'd never seen it. Or maybe a mix of both; he was very caught up in his self-loathing, she'd seen that even more lately, so it seemed quite plausible. Also she thought sometimes that Antoinette must be acting nice near him, so he wouldn't suspect she could treat the maids like she was.

When she began thinking of the master, as her mind had slipped into now, she couldn't deny a strong urge to empty the contents of her stomach. She did her best to remind herself that he wasn't in control of himself, she really did, but there was no denying what happened. She promised herself that she would always make sure she kept him at arm's length from now on – literally.

Eventually the urge became weaker, as she managed to make the memory leave her mind, but it never left, not entirely.

Soon days fell into a repetitive pattern yet again, luckily one not as bad as before. This she was happy about. Tifa continued with the lessons, which were finally back to being a normal time in length. She was really starting to learn a lot, which meant she wouldn't have to be here for too much longer, she hoped. Even if things were better, this place was still hell, and nothing could change that.

….

One day near the end of the month, when Yuffie was cleaning the opposite end of the house Tifa was, meaning she was by herself, she spotted Antoinette staring up at the stain glass windows when she walked into the main hall. The teen showed no sign she'd noticed her new presence. Her eyes usually dark, filled with unneeded anger, were light with an emotion the onlooker could not place no matter how long she stared. She knew she shouldn't stay around in case Antoinette caught her and went off her head for staring, as she was bound to; but she couldn't bring herself to look away. Her expression appeared so alien on a face that only ever showed hatred. It was peaceful and calm, not quite happy, but hopeful in a strange way. It was clear that Antoinette had found herself transfixed with the scene the magnificent window displayed. Yuffie began to believe this was not the first time, since the girl had lived here her whole life; maybe she had a secret liking for the beautiful windows, the only source of colour in this bland and eerie house.

It was after a minute or so of watching her, did Antoinette take her eyes off the windows, and instead gazed at the framed picture of the smiling woman, which Yuffie knew now was a picture of Antoinette's mother. The brunette girl scowled, almost immediately did her usual expression return. She had a dislike for her mother it seemed, or at least Yuffie thought so, since there wasn't any problem with the photo itself certainly. She should've just left, instead of wondering what on earth her problem could be, because at that moment Antoinette noticed her, and her scowl deepened, and hate enveloped previously hopeful eyes.

"What are you doing?" she spat. "Leave before I break that broom you're holding over your head. I'm sure it'll hurt, it did to that other stupid maid."

Yuffie flinched at the unexpected irritated voice, and maybe a little for the threat at well. "Sorry!" she hastily apologised before running back into the room she had just finished cleaning instead of where she had been planning to head, seeing as it was closer and she feared that passing by Antoinette would only worsen her sour mood.

She peeked out the door to see if she'd left, only to spot Antoinette standing on the same spot only not looking her way; fortunately. She had returned to look at the photograph of her mother, her scowl was normal enough, and maybe the anger shining forth from her eyes, but there was a hint of another emotion inside them and that's what caught Yuffie's interest. So like before, curiosity made Yuffie unable to take her eyes away; she was really starting to hate her curiosity, it'd gotten her in enough trouble. That other emotion didn't seem right at all, it felt to her like it shouldn't be in that girl's eyes; and it quickly bothered her. The slamming of the picture made Yuffie jump and completely snap her out of her growing trance; Antoinette had knocked it down purposely. The onlooker stopped her peaking and hid inside the room, but as it turned out Antoinette was aware of more than she'd expected.

"Stop that, I know you're already done that room, else you wouldn't have come out here. Common sense isn't it? Unless you actually wanted to spy on me." Her voice in her last sentence was bitter. "But I don't think either of you are like that, stupid yes, lazy too, but not that type."

Yuffie crept out the door a little, her hand holding onto the door loosely; unsure of her closeness to Antoinette. She was expecting her to snap any second, as was normal for her.

But she wasn't her usual self at the moment; something was bothering her, to a mighty degree surely, as a tear was even falling down her cheek, its companions surely soon to follow suit.

"Are you….?" Yuffie tried to ask her a question, one she couldn't form in or outside of her head. What was she to say, when in front of her someone she had learnt was nothing but cruel, was in tears? Are you alright? Was that what she was supposed to say? She barely even knew.

"Did he do something to you?" Antoinette questioned with a hint of resentment in her tone. She was surely angry, but her expression and tears that shone in the sunlight were a contradiction.

"Eh?" Was all Yuffie managed to say, having not expected that the girl had been in a mood to talk, much less to question her.

"Papa. Did he do something bad to you? Because you seem different, like that other stupid woman did the first time he'd hurt her." Evidently because of her tears, her voice had become shaky and weak, as she forced them back.

Yuffie bit her lip, and shut her eyes suddenly, like someone had just gone and whacked her in the head. For that was what she felt like, her stomach plummeted just daring to think of the thought of what he'd done to her. Antoinette's question had only served to remind her it happened, and made the memory come back to her so clearly it was scary.

She laughed, Antoinette covered her face, and almost fell to her knees as laughter came and overtook her body. It wasn't a high-pitched insulting laugh, but shocked laughter, like when one came to an unwanted realisation that made them uneasy. She shook with each laugh and each tear that tricked down her cheeks. Two things that contradicted each other, and made it impossible to tell what was running through her head this very moment. She looked crazy.

"That man!" Antoinette growled without warning, making Yuffie take a step back. "Of course he did, just like the last one!" She screamed through gritted teeth. Her answer didn't need to be vocal; her reaction was enough to tell the teen what he had done.

"Papa just doesn't know what control means, does he?" She sighed exasperatedly then, and bit her lip. "He really doesn't care." she muttered under her breath, in a very different tone; which hinted to Yuffie that her last sentence was directed to another thing, and not the rape.

"He thinks he can buy me anything I want so I won't see the darkness, or so I don't miss the mother I never had. But I don't want those stupid worthless presents, and I never wanted her either!" She raised her voice to a yell as she reached the end of the last sentence, and in anger kicked the table before her. She then stormed down the staircase, presumably heading in the direction of the library where her father was likely to be. Yuffie stepped away from the doorway and looked down the steps to see her, yes, head for the double doors to the library. She swung the doors open and strode inside in a huff.

Hastily Yuffie ran to the other side of the room, which led to the other rooms she was meant to clean. She expected Antoinette intended to scream in her little 'conversation' with her father, after seeing her in that type of mood. Yuffie had no intentions to listen in, so she was quick to leave the main hall behind. Maybe having Tifa to talk to would be calming, as sadly the maid was the sanest here, and she had such a bad grasp on sanity herself.

She slowed her pace to a walk when she knew she was out of earshot. Antoinette was apparently spoilt rotten. Why wasn't that surprising? And she didn't even remotely appreciate what her father gave her. It wasn't that weird that he was trying to compensate, fathers usually didn't do well by themselves. It was normal to think that she'd want her mother, and there was nothing to stop him from thinking so, if she never told him otherwise.

…

When Yuffie found Tifa, she didn't go right into speaking to her with what she wanted to; she waited for a couple of moments in near perfect silence, ruined only by the sounds of birds outside. Half because she didn't know how to start, which was a mix of not knowing how to start such a topic or how to say the words she wanted to use in English; the rest of the reason was that she was having trouble getting her mind to settle down. After a minute or so Tifa did ask for her help with cleaning the room, after she noted how Yuffie was staring at it in shock, it was a humongous mess.

"This is Antoinette's room if you didn't know already, this is normal for her."

Yuffie's gaze ran along the book shelves in the corner of the large elaborate bedroom. The books were knocked off, ripped apart or covered in dust or some other kind of mess that surely shouldn't have been there at all. Objects that belonged in other places had been stuffed between books, absolutely destroyed. When her eyes strayed to the four poster bed she noticed the cracks and layers of torn sheets, and when her eyes looked to the walk in wardrobe she saw an uncountable number of expensive dresses, half of which were on the floor in pieces.

"This is normal?"

"Yes," Tifa replied, "Whenever she has a fit. There's really no reason to continue replacing everything she wrecked, since she doesn't want them anyway and she's bound to do it again."

"This all gets replaced?" She really was spoilt rotten then.

"Of course, she's a spoilt little rich girl." Tifa sighed inwardly, as she began to pick up ruined books off the ground and onto a pile of the table. "You shouldn't blame the master, he doesn't know what she wants, not all of it at least. Like most fathers would when they're by themselves they'd believe that their child is bound to want their mother, and the strategy to make up for their absence is to distract them with gifts. Like mine did when he was healthy."

Yuffie nodded, even though most of what she had been told she had already figured out. The only new piece of information was that apparently Tifa's mother had never been there.

"But you're not like her." She said in a whisper as she assisted Tifa with the books.

"I know." She smiled sadly. "But the gifts I got were much less than this, and not as extravagant. We weren't rich, that's the difference. I guess the fathers that do go all out with the gifts happen to build up a wall between the child and themselves, Antoinette seems to think that he is trying to distance himself from her."

"Makes sense. I think," Yuffie mumbled, to herself more than to the older girl.

"He is though; it's not like he knows what he's doing anyway. He doesn't like himself very much, and he doesn't want her to know him. But she's cruel and doesn't understand human emotion; I doubt she's aware of his self-hatred. She wants to break down the wall that's between them. His thoughts on the matter are irrelevant; she's always been selfish like that."

Yuffie dumped an armful of tattered books on the table besides the far neater pile Tifa had made. "I get why she don't like the presents, but why does she hate her mother?"

"Hmm," Tifa hummed. "That's even easier, it's not quite selfish as a reason, more crazy."

Yuffie tiled her head, confused. "Eh?"

"She died around fifteen years ago, I'm quite sure it was during labour, so that's why Antoinette has absolutely no recollection of her. But the master's absorbed in her memory, obsessively at that. He can't get over what happened in his past; he blames himself for her death. Antoinette's the one that told me that, to be truthful: during a very weird argument we had after I asked her a question."

Yuffie frowned dejectedly, and cut in a little accidentally, "My mother died during labour."

Tifa raised an eyebrow at that, and questioned her further instead of continuing her explanation. "So you don't have any memories of her either?"

"No." Yuffie shook her head. "I was three; the baby would have been my little brother. Mother got very sick, and she didn't make it. They managed to get the baby out before she passed, but he was very small, he only lasted a day."

"That must've been horrible; I'm an only child so I wouldn't know anything like that."

"No it's alright," Yuffie stopped her, "I was very young, so I don't remember her very well, and my brother didn't live long enough for me to get attached. The only problem was that Father married again right afterwards, but he did kind of have to. She was nice, so it didn't bother me that much. She was pregnant when I left, I hope she had a son, so then he can replace the one that Father lost. I know it made him sad."

Tifa was silent for a minute, lost in thought, humming quietly. "You know I haven't put much thought into it, but what exactly was your father's position; I know he would've had to have been a noble since you didn't know English…" She halted mid-sentence when Yuffie stiffened.

"Maybe I should just continue with my explanation?" she asked awkwardly. Yuffie nodded wordlessly.

Returning to their previously topic Tifa began. "Antoinette can't stand how caught up he is with the memories of his past, and how he obviously prefers his past to present. A part of why she hates her mother so much is that she sees it as her mother exists in the 'past', while she exists in the 'present'. So she sees it as that her father doesn't care for her, but he does for her deceased mother. And it infuriates her, she feels like he can't see her, like she is nothing."

"But if that was so he wouldn't be giving her the gifts-"

"That's true, but being the way she is, Antoinette can't see that. She hates her mother since she wants him to see her, not his dead wife."

Yuffie gazed down at her feet; she was starting to feel bad about how she had been viewing her previously. She was a mean person, it was so hard not to hate her, but she did have her reasons, be they wrong or right.

"What does she want then, Tifa?"

"Him." She answered simply.

"In what way?" Yuffie asked, in a beseeching tone.

"I think you'll be able to see that soon enough. She's strange, calling her crazy is more befitting than cruel. It'd be the truth to say she's the worst here, even when she's suffered the least. But she has not once been mentally stable in her life. Her obsessive personality forbids it."

Biting her lip Yuffie pivoted and left the room, as they'd been cleaning as they talked it was about as good as they alone could get it, no point in sticking around. The conversation had left Yuffie more confused; sure a lot had been explained, but that didn't make it less confusing to her, it made it worse.

…

Outside, around the town sweet birdsong played non-stop, as the animals were slowly coming out of their hiding. But on top of the monstrous mountain that cast a dark shadow over the tiny town, there was nothing but the sound of the wind dodging between hills and crevices. Dark clouds loomed over a mansion, not as huge as the one closer to town, but far more decayed. Around it were piles of rubble and hideous monsters sneaking around trying to find a way in. This was no problem to its inhabitants, who were by far the true monsters.

Shelke ran along one of its dark, light-less hallways. The windows had been covered with planks of wood, to stop the light from entering, and the lights smashed. The candles that had once lit the house were long burnt out. Wooden planks jutted out of place, ready to trip the unready visitor. She was used to it being this way, and was certainly no bother to her. The house wasn't a problem; it was its other inhabitants. Most she never had to deal with, for they locked themselves away in the shadows, but one always liked to make sure her presence was known.

The orange haired girl wandered into what may have once been a dining room, and was greeted by a grotesque scene. Bodies lay half eaten, splayed about the room. Blood was splattered everywhere, painting the room a glorious crimson. Some of the men were naked, showing that their attacker had had her fun with them beforehand.

Shelke assumed that another group of men had come up onto the mountain to investigate the disappearances; it always had the same ending. They'd climb all the way to the top, and see the mansion at its peak. They'd all wonder what it was doing there, as no one in town knew about it. So they'd get really close, by that time commonly speculating it was a haunted house. It would be at that very moment that a tall, mysterious woman would appear at the doorway and invite them in, with an enchanting smile gracing her features. Some men would claim she was a ghost come to kill them and run away; but then the outside monsters would get them, they'd smell their fear. The ones who stayed would be treated as honoured guests, for a little while. The woman would weave a grand story about how she was widowed when a burglar came into her house, and when her husband tried to save their possessions he was stabbed, and the burglar ran off with everything they held dear. It would make them take pity on her, and when she got to the part about how lonely she had been, they would soon take advantage of her, being the men they were. Even the married ones couldn't help themselves, when this striking woman was practically throwing herself at them. It wasn't like they'd see their wives again anyway, unbeknownst to them. But the woman was taking advantage of them truthfully, being the lustful creature she was. It was all a game to her after all, one that would temporally fill up her hunger, even more so when she slaughtered them.

Shelke spotted Rosso sitting cross-legged on a thrown like chair. She was nude, but the younger girl couldn't see anything because of the half-dead body of a man she clung onto. Her fangs were embedded deep into his neck, as she slowly and painfully drained him of his life. When he went limp, she let him go, having drunk her fill. She smiled in delight and hopped off the chair to retrieve her clothes from where she'd left them.

"It's a shame that was over so fast. But they panicked too much; I had to rush or they'd turn to smashing the windows instead of trying to open a locked door. Not like they could've done it, but humans are funny, and so fun to watch when they panic. I had to let them keep at it." she said with a sigh as she pulled her dress over her head. Blood covered her hands, chest and mouth, a layer of sweat accompanying it, except it was all over her body.

"They neither tasted as nice as the others nor did were they as good as the others. I feel sorry for their wives if that's going all out."

Shelke didn't respond to the comment, there was no point to really, as Rosso had half said it to herself. She hopped up onto the table in silence.

Fully dressed, Rosso spun around and straight off asked the other a question. Her delighted smile was overshadowed by a dark yet joyful glint in her eyes.

"So, how has that man been lately, killed that maid yet? Surely he would've had enough of her already."

Shelke heaved a sigh. "Vincent's not like you remember. He's still very human. I think he feels pity for her and can't bring himself to do it."

Rosso grumbled. "Now come on, he's the one with the split personality and he can't even kill one measly girl!?"

"I told you he's human. If he stays calm then even when his personalities switch he wouldn't be in the mood to take someone's life-"

"But what if he's hungry, think about that? Surely she should've put herself in a bad situation by now."

"There are plenty of whores in the town to fulfil any need a man has you know. I think he makes sure he isn't hungry when he's near her. It lessens what pain he'll cause her."

The other gritted her teeth, deciding she was on the losing side and the conversation was no longer worth keeping up. "Stupid man, I give him so much and he won't give me anything in return!" She crossed her arms angrily.

Shelke sent her a funny look, one she missed as her back was turned. "I don't think killing his wife and turning him into a monster is that much of a good thing. At least not to someone like him; I told you, he's very human. And besides, even if he kills the maid there are still the whores in town as I said. Don't assume he'd come to you after that."

Rosso turned around with an agitated scowl. She strode forth and slapped Shelke on the cheek, knocking her off the table and slamming her into the ground. "Don't YOU speak to ME that way, you hear that! Not after what I have given to you."

She pivoted on her foot and stood near the door; possibly deciding whether she should continue their talk or leave the room. "Do you think I could get him to come to me if I kill the maid and that other girl?"

"His daughter you mean?"

"Of course, who else!?" She raised her voice to a yell again.

Shelke flinched at the sound. "No one else I was just saying-" But Rosso caught the odd tone in her voice.

"So there's someone else isn't there, there's another that's in my way." Her mouth straightened into a straight line. "Tsk, he has enough, the maid and that daughter of his is enough, one more's too many. I think I should be allowed to do whatever I want with that extra."

"Rosso don't!" Shelke attempted to convince her otherwise, but when she received an elated smile as a response she knew it was pointless.

"Thank you for confirming their existence for me. When I decide what I want to do with them, I'll head over to that manner of his. Goodnight Shelke, I've some thinking to do."

It was quite possible that Shelke had never felt worse. She really had ruined that girl's life.

…

Night had long since fallen; the moon illuminated the land below in eerie silver light. Yuffie ran along the hall, her steps unsteady thanks to her tiredness. She saw today as rather different to the others, and had broken that growing chain of partial normality. During her lesson she had bugged Tifa non-stop to explain what it was exactly that Antoinette wanted out of her father, but the maid said nothing but short cryptic sentences and immediately afterwards told her to see for herself. So she had certainly learnt nothing today, but she surely had been tired out from all the cleaning. From the lethargic way Tifa had been acting of late the amount had really piled up, it was only now when the girl was in a better state that they were able to catch up.

Yuffie ran across the main hall, wishing for nothing more than to wrap her soft blankets around her weary form. She was distracted, however, by a groan and a banging sound coming from down the stairs. Creeping up and peering over the railings, she saw Antoinette muttering under her breath and making oddly sounded noises of annoyance, all the whilst kicking a door to a room Yuffie knew herself was locked, as it had been the entire time she'd been here.

When the odd sounds she was making got louder, Yuffie couldn't help but ask what she was doing; she expected to get yelled at, she was prepared for it.

Antoinette spun around when she heard her voice, for a moment her eyes darted around the room trying to find her, she quickly spotted her near the top of the stair case.

"Go away, stupid maid. It's not important what I'm doing." she growled before kicking the door again.

Yuffie hurried to the safety of her room when Antoinette began to storm up the stairs, she stopped midway however, when the teen sat down on a step, halfway to the top. She folded her arms, with a cross expression. The other raised an eyebrow and attempted to not let her curiosity come out in her voice when she asked, "What are you doing?"

Antoinette glared at her angrily before she answered; in an equally angry voice that Yuffie was glad was not her own fault, "I'll wait here for as long as it takes. Papa has to come out of that room sometime. And when he does I'll make him answer me, serves him right for kicking me out of that room again!"

The older girl nodded and left her alone, knowing full well she didn't want to witness the conversation nor plainly stand near the angered teenager for much longer; she looked ready to explode.

…

Yuffie awoke in the middle of the night, to the sound of arguing. At first, she attempted to ignore it and return to her sleep, but she quickly found this was to no avail, as the voices only got louder as time went on. She tried to block them out by covering her ears with her pillow, but this didn't work either and was also extremely uncomfortable. She lifted herself up into a sitting position, and tried to listen in, but the walls in the way muffled the voices too much too make out what they were saying, though she had suspicions of who they might be. Jumping up out of bed she crept to the door and opened it, peeking out. She made sure that she made no sound herself, so they wouldn't notice her presence.

She could tell before she saw them that it was the master and Antoinette arguing. He didn't sound angry one bit, more exasperated. She however, sounded more furious than Yuffie had ever heard her, quite a feat in her eyes. But there was another emotion in her voice that she couldn't quite place, but when she turned a corner and spotted them standing on front of the grand stair case it shone forth from her eyes. She was hurt. This piqued her curiosity. It felt bad to spy on them, but now that she was here she didn't want to leave, she wanted to know what they were yelling at each other for; after all they had woken her up when her sleep had been ever so comfortable.

"I want to, can't you see that!?" Antoinette screamed, pain ringing in her voice as she forced back tears.

Her father looked mentally exhausted; he shook his head and bit his lip. "Why can't you be reasonable? It's not right."

"I don't care!" she screamed furiously.

"I do, try to understand that."

"Why can't you try to understand what I want!? Why?" By now she sounded more like a toddler having a tantrum than a teenage girl.

Vincent sighed; he'd had enough of her being like this. Knowing it probably wouldn't work he tried to walk past her and return to downstairs, but as he predicted she would, Antoinette latched onto his arm and clung to him, no longer bothering to keep her tears back. She dug her head into his side.

"But I want to!"

"Look, you, of all people, can't replace her." He struggled to say calmly, as the annoyed tone remained, the only thing different was how quiet he'd said it. Yuffie had barely made him out even with the silence of the night.

"But I want to. Please." Antoinette sobbed, holding him tighter. Her bottom lip quivered as she held back the remaining tears in her eyes. "I look like her, don't I?" She mumbled dejectedly.

Her father was quiet was quite some time, enough to make one think he wasn't going to reply, but after his long silence he responded. "That doesn't change anything. You're my daughter, it's not right."

Antoinette pouted and held him tighter, choosing to ignore his words. Her father tried to pry her arms off him, wanting to end this as quickly as possible. But when he did she let go herself and went up on her tiptoes. Yuffie couldn't tell what she was trying to do, nor did she understand what this was all about. All she knew was that the moment Antoinette started to do whatever she was doing her father turned his head, and grabbed onto the balustrade so he didn't fall down the steps which he was dangerously close to.

The teenager sobbed, but realised she was getting nowhere and finally gave up. She whacked him on the arm and stormed off down the hall, screaming.

"I hate you!"

Vincent said and did nothing for long after she left. And Yuffie didn't take a step either, in fear that if she did he'd hear her. He did take a look in her direction however, but when he spotted her he did not look surprised.

"Ah, I'm sorry," she apologised. She found herself using her own language as she had last time they'd talked, he didn't seem to mind, and as he had last time he made things easier on her by talking in it as well.

"Don't bother. Tifa's overheard us arguing as well, I wouldn't blame you, considering it must have woken you." He sounded oddly calm, as Yuffie felt herself. She guessed it was for the distance between them that she didn't fear at all him hurting her again.

"What was that?" she questioned, tilting her head.

He sighed. "It's normal for her now. She does that every now and then."

"Who does she want to replace, exactly?"

"Lucrecia," he replied, a wretched expression on his face as the name left his lips.

"Lucrecia," she repeated, as she thought about who that may be, but he gave that answer for her.

"She's her mother."

But that ignited her curiosity again, "How exactly does Antoinette want to replace her mother?" She asked, perplexed.

"In a way a daughter shouldn't. I'll tell you that at least."

Yuffie grimaced when she figured out what that meant. "She tried to kiss you, didn't she?" It sounded horrible to ask, but it was quite possibly true.

"Yes, it's not the first time she'd tried, and I doubt it'll be the last." Vincent replied, as he turned and sat on the first step, his head in one hand.

"I'm not the type of person who should be a father," he said half to himself.

Yuffie bit her lip, wondering if she should leave, but she spoke before she could decide on what to do. "That's an awful negative thing to say."

He looked back at her for a moment, before returning his depressed gaze to the floor. "True; but it's right. I don't think I ever wanted a child, but Lucrecia had always wanted to be a mother. She always went on about how lovely hers had been and how much she wished to have that kind of a bond with someone. It was a cherished dream for her; I had to make it come true for her. She knew what I thought, but she promised me she'd always be there to help."

Yuffie frowned, knowing where this was heading.

"She had been so sickly during her pregnancy; everyone that knew her believed she wouldn't make it. I refused to think it'd kill her, I was by her bedside everyday praying that she'd be alright." He paused for a moment, becoming caught up in his emotions. "One day near the end of the pregnancy, she was feeling better, and we had hope again. We were outside I remember, it'd been a sunny day outside so there was no fear that she'd become sick again. But a stranger came up to us, and attacked. We were both injured, but she was far worse. She went into premature labour with life-threatening injuries. It's a miracle the baby made it at all, but she never made it through the night."

"I'm sorry."

He looked back to her, his expression hidden. "You're not the one who should be apologising."

"I know, but I doubt the one who should ever would."

* * *

**Nyan.**

**Man do I feel sorry for Vincent in this. I don't hate him, the more I torture people the more I love them.**

**Please review, I haven't been getting them lately and it's very depressing.**

**Jya ne,**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine.**


	6. The Past

**(17,003 words) Heh, I knew that this chapter would be longer than the others, but when I said that I meant maybe about 10 thou, not 17. This is the longest thing I've ever written, so if there's mistakes I apologise in advance. I hope the last one doesn't go heaps long as well, though it probably will.**

**There's a scene in here I had real trouble with, and would have gotten this done faster if it wasn't for that one freaking scene, you may realise what it is when you get up to it, I kind of cut it short as it got too difficult. The situation made it too hard for a first go. I think I got peer pressured into writing it when I mentioned it to my friends, first time that's happened to me. **

**Yeah there's random flashbacks littered about this chapter, most are from 15 years back but pretty sure the first one's a bit older than that. It wasn't too difficult writing them (actually they were the easiest thing in the chapter) even though Lucy was in them. It's hard to properly judge her character since she's seen so little, but to me I think that what is seen of her in the game is when she's gone...crazy. And I believe that before that she was actually really nice, so I made her that way in this. You can disagree with me that's fine I know a lot of people hate her.**

**Reviews shall be much apreciated.**

**Um, well. Enjoy!**

* * *

6) The past

* * *

"I'm sorry I left this to so late but Antoinette's been keeping me incredibly busy as of late." Tifa forced a chuckle as she sat down next to Yuffie. They were in the middle of Tifa's bedroom, which Yuffie couldn't help but notice was far larger than her own. They ate a late dinner as the lesson was held. "I think she forgot that I'm a maid not a slave. She even began to call me by that at one point." Tifa sighed, she looked awfully exhausted. Yuffie had even told her that maybe it'd be best if she just go to bed and rest instead; she was fine with missing a lesson or two, but despite this Tifa had decided to go ahead with it anyway.

So the lesson went ahead as they had a lukewarm meal far later than they should have. It was fine for the most part, until Tifa started looking around fretfully. "I knew I forgot something." She muttered half to herself before looking back in Yuffie's direction and asking,

"Would you mind finding two books for me? They should be on the table near the door of the library, I put them there earlier since I was going to use them to help with this lesson, but Antoinette called for me again. I must've forgotten to go back for them."

"Isn't the master usually in there?" Yuffie mumbled uneasily, she wasn't as cautious of him as she had been, but she still preferred to keep a distance. And she felt that if she did go that distance wouldn't be as much as she desired.

"He was sleeping last time I saw him." Tifa replied calmly. "Going from past experience he may still be asleep. He doesn't sleep much at all to be true, but when he does he's out like a light and doesn't wake up for hours. I guess sometimes his body isn't able to take that much lack of rest. Everyone has their limit."

"Alright." Yuffie got up nervously, she hoped Tifa's words were true but it didn't stop an uneasy feeling from stirring in her stomach. "I'll get them."

"Don't take too long, I fear I'll fall asleep otherwise." She laughed, but the emotions weren't as true as she tried to make Yuffie believe, she may have known as well that the girl had seen through it. Yuffie nodded as she left the room behind.

She followed a familiar path to the entrance hall before descending the stairs and running over to the library doors. Wearily she opened them, eyeing the area to the left where she had always seen him before. He was there as she predicted, and indeed asleep as Tifa had said he would be. She tiptoed over to a small table close to the door and picked up the two books on it. She dashed out of the room like a frightened animal before shutting the door behind her. She raced back over to Tifa's room, but when she got there the first thing she noticed was that Tifa had fallen asleep on the ground. It appeared the woman was already fast asleep; Yuffie really didn't want to wake her when she looked so comfortable, so instead she took the pillows and blanket off her bed and placed them under her head and over her body.

She grinned at the sleeping woman; she had been much more tired than she was letting on, the moment she didn't have conversation to distract her she fell into the land of dreams. Yuffie placed the book she'd request her to bring on the floor near the door, having no uncluttered table to place it on. That was when she noticed she'd forgotten one of the books; she'd only brought one. She mentally sighed when she realised she'd have to go back for the other one. She hoped the master would stay asleep.

She followed the path she'd only taken moments before back to the entrance hall and in turn the library. She opened the door as quietly as she had before and crept over to the table. She gently picked the book up and held it close. Her eyes caught a small movement in the corner of the room and immediately they looked in its direction, only to notice it was the master moving in his sleep.

He looked awfully peaceful in his sleep; Yuffie began to think. None of those negative emotions showing on his expression, he looked happy if anything. It seemed real odd coming from someone like him; the expression looked so alien. It was then that she began to regret that she had chosen this moment to stand and stare, for it was this moment that he chose to rouse.

The first thing he did was blink a couple times and rub the sleep from his eyes, and right after that he moved gaze to her, eyeing her curiously. "What are you doing here?" He asked tiredly in his deep voice.

She jumped, bitting her lip so that she didn't make a sound. "Tifa told me to get a book for her since she was so tired. I didn't mean to stare, I'm sorry I guess." Yuffie explained hastily.

"Right then." Vincent mumbled to himself, moving so that he was in a sitting position. He rubbed the remainder of sleep from his eyes before looking back to her, who was indeed still staring rather blankly. He didn't say anything and neither did she. Eventually she came to realise that he was waiting for her to say more, possibly out of curiosity about why she continued to stare as she did. She didn't know as he didn't voice his thoughts, he wasn't the type to.

"You know you were smiling in your sleep." She said in an embarrassed tone. "Was it a good dream?" She didn't really want to know, she wasn't even that sure why she asked it in the first place, but an invisible force stopped her from leaving the room.

"I'm not sure. I always forget mine the moment I wake up. Been that way for years." He admitted without much a thought.

Yuffie frowned, feeling that he was lying. "Really? Is that the truth?" She questioned.

He noted that she had caught something odd in his tone in his last sentence, but he barely made a mention to it. "It's not a matter worth prying about. They're just dreams, nothing more." This though showed that he had lied before, Yuffie decided there really wasn't a reason to go off at him for that.

"But dreams can be wonderful, they can take you away to a faraway place where all the pain and misery from this life can't reach you, and nothing matters but the bliss it brings." She slipped into her own language as she said that, accidentally as always of course. He didn't seem to mind, and she was too distracted to notice her slipup, because she was too amused by how poetic she had just sounded. Though she made sure not to let something so silly show through. Yuffie took a step closer, barely even noticing that she had and sat down on the ground.

"Why wouldn't you care about something as wonderful as that?" She inquired baffled.

He took a minute to reply, "Dreams can be bad as well. And even the good ones fade."

Her frown deepened at his sentence, "You know you don't have to be such a downer!" She grumbled, annoyed.

Vincent chuckled at her tone, "Haven't heard you speak like that before. It's rather different than that sad way you've always talked before isn't it?"

Yuffie was almost as shocked that she'd even slipped into that tone as she was to hear him chuckle. She got over her shock quickly and tried to think up a reply. "I know it is, but it's kind of hard to act like myself here. Everything is alien and scary, it's depressing too."

"So this is how you usually act?" He asked, but very little curiosity was present in his voice, his face showed nothing.

"I don't know! I guess, maybe…" She shook her head as she got upset with herself for not knowing the answer. "Well at least it's how I used to be. It's too hard in a place like this, but I guess I already said that." She pouted and curled into a ball with her knees pressed against her chest.

"Did you used to be different too?"

"I can barely remember anymore. It's been far too long."

* * *

"_Hey, you know if you stay there you'll catch a cold." A jovial voice laughed, from somewhere to his left. Vincent opened his eyes to see his beautiful fiancé smiling at him as she leaned over his form._

"_It's spring." He replied._

"_That doesn't mean you can't catch a cold you know." Lucrecia giggled, "I remember this time when I was young, and my sister and I were playing under this very tree during the middle of spring. Mama told us that and we laughed at her since it was funny. But she was right you know, we both got a terrible cold a few days later. It was her turn to laugh then."_

_She stood up straight and strolled over to the flower patch only a metre away, playing around like a child._

"_That sounds mean." He sighed._

"_Oh, it was all in good humour. We laughed too, of course then we started coughing our lungs out but anyway…" She trailed off as she spun to look back at him. "I woke you up and that's all that matters._

_She laughed and he laughed with her, she was a light that drew all to her._

Antoinette would never understand why he adored these long lost days, for she'd never been around to see them. They had been magical, and if he could to return to them he would, even if it meant going through the torture of the events that followed afterwards again. To be in this non-existent world of the past for even a moment would be marvellous.

Lucrecia had been a stunning, beautiful woman. So happy and cheerful, a great difference to what her daughter had become. On that sunny day in a field of flowers, she'd perhaps never looked so beautiful, except maybe on her wedding day.

* * *

"You still there?" Yuffie asked when Vincent had been silent for a while.

"I'm just thinking." He answered. "That's nothing to worry over."

"Right." She uncurled herself and altered her position so that she was more comfortable.

He eyed her as she did it. "You don't seem afraid of our proximity." He stated.

"Eh?" Yuffie jumped, she hadn't expected he'd talk again so soon going off previous times they'd conversed. "I hadn't noticed. Maybe I'm being weird." She looked downward almost as if she was embarrassed.

"Maybe you accept that I'm calm and not going to hurt you. Tifa never will, but she's been hurt so bad, I doubt it's even remotely possible for her to be level-headed around me."

"That's kind of sad. Why doesn't she try to work somewhere else if she's scared of you so much?"

"She has nowhere else to go. I'm aware that Antoinette's been stealing her money so she hasn't enough to leave town nor can she acquire another job in town, as their view of her isn't very high. It wouldn't be wrong to say they think she's cursed." Vincent admitted.

"Why don't you try to stop Antoinette from doing that?" Yuffie questioned, from the sound of things this was something that has been going on for a while.

"I've tried that before, but Antoinette found new ways to steal it and new places to hide it. And when Tifa found out I was trying to stop Antoinette she claimed it was an attempt to regain her trust. She yelled that it wouldn't work and slapped me when I told her it wasn't. That was the last time we talked, if you could call that a conversation."

Yuffie frowned, "She has a bad judge of your character huh?" She returned to speaking in the tone she had earlier, one that surprised her that she could even still use it.

"I could hardly blame her from what I've done to her."

Disliking the path their conversation was going, Yuffie decided to ask a question of a different topic. "So what were you thinking about earlier, when you drifted off?"

"Many things." He answered.

Unhappy with his short answer she tried to get a more detailed one from him, and decided to start off with what appeared to her as most likely.

"Was it about Lucrecia?" Yuffie inquired with a tilt of her head.

There was a moment, as she predicted there would be, where he did not respond. Luckily this moment didn't last long and soon he spoke.

"Quite possibly."

For her that answer was still too vague, though it made her rather sure that it had been about what she thought, but she was curious about what the thoughts had contained beyond that fact.

"Antoinette complained to me non-stop a few days before that she's all you think about. It's shocking how much that girl believes that you can't even see her."

"She's always been strange, there's little to nought I can do to help that now. But it's stupid to think I'm not able to see her, she's too loud for that. I try to give her everything she could want, besides one thing. But because of that one thing she disregards everything else and goes about her day begging for me to see her the way _she_ wants. But it'd be disturbing just daring the thought of me seeing her in that way."

* * *

_He watched a dark cloudy scene from the window, as he sat by her bedside. Her rest was anything but peaceful; her breathing was shallow as she moved about restlessly. He knew she was incredibly tired, but the world of dreams was elusive to her, as it had been for the last couple months. He tightened his grip on her hand; he was so worried about her, what if her state worsened? What if she didn't make it? _

_Vincent shook the thoughts from his head. He couldn't give up on her; not when everybody else already had. She needed someone to support her, or he feared she would truly meet her end._

_He never wanted to have a child, but it had been her dream and he'd had to let it come true. She would be a wonderful mother, he could just see it. She would shower their child with all the love she could give; they'd be the centre of her world. This had almost made him overlook her weak body; everybody had always warned him about the troubles she would go through if she fell pregnant. They scared him so much he'd came close to wanting her to miscarry the baby once he found out she was pregnant. But for the first couple months she was perfectly fine, so these thoughts evaporated and it was like they were never there. The time without those fears circling about in his head had been wonderful, but soon they had come back doubled. She'd fell ill in her seventh month, and was yet to recover. She hadn't gotten worse, but she certainly hadn't gotten better. This was when even her own family had turned to him and said she would die before she reached the ninth month. _

_Vincent had gone off his head at them; they were being cruel, so cruel. No one could say that and truly believe it, not about their own daughter._

"_Vincent" A quiet shaky voice called out, he returned to reality to see her looking up to him, with a tiny barely there smile. The skin of her face was pale, her eyes red with purple bags under them. She'd been crying when he wasn't there, all it had done was tire her more._

"_Lucrecia, you should sleep more." He begged her, concerned over her state._

"_I'm fine." She replied, but they both knew it was a lie. She was in pain, both physical and mental. She didn't want this sickness to take her, not only was she so young, but it'd take the child inside her as well._

"_Please rest some more. You might feel better afterwards." He brushed strands of hair from her forehead__, it like the rest of her__ body was covered in sweat. Earlier she had complained of feeling hot and had pleaded with him to take some of the blanket off her, but besides her forehead she was freezing. It was the middle of winter and he didn't want her to get worse._

"_I wouldn't mind eating something. I've been starving for hours." She tried to laugh, but the movement only made her cough._

"_You should've said something earlier if that's so. I'll get something for you now then." He got up from the chair and left her momentarily. He was starving himself; he may as well get some food for him as well._

_She whispered 'thank you' in a frail voice as he left. _

_Bringing her meals to her was one of the few reasons he left her alone. He was almost in a complete refusal to leave her bedside. He'd slept in the chair next to the bed for two weeks straight. He was so worried about her, she was all he had, he could never let her die; he wouldn't be able to live with himself._

* * *

"My father would kill me if I acted like that." Yuffie muttered after quite some time of nothing but silence. She was tired and neither of them really had anything to say, but as it had before, an unseeable force kept her in this room. "Not literally of course. Unless his wife did the deed, but I doubt she's that mean."

"Wife? He's not married to your mother, that's odd." He said to himself, half asleep. It wasn't a question to her despite how it sounded, but she answered anyway, 'why not' was the thought going through her head.

"Mother died giving birth to a son when I was three. He lived only for a day and I didn't even get to see him. I think I feel sadder that I never saw him than that he died before he could even grasp what life is."

"Lucrecia never saw her daughter's face. The moment Antoinette was born she fell unconscious. She never woke up."

Yuffie grimaced, that sounded like a horrible story. "I'm sorry to hear that. At least mother saw my brother's face, father only got to for a moment, he wasn't actually allowed in the room he just barged in when a nurse mentioned she wasn't doing well. I cried when he told me that it was the moment mother died too, she smiled at him then her head rolled back and her eyes closed. She looked happy, but he burst into tears. He scared the servants, since they'd never seen the man cry, not once.

"He was practically forced to get married soon after their funeral. He didn't want to since he was still grieving, and I didn't want him to either since I wanted it to only be him and mother and no one else. The first time I saw his fiancé I tried attacking her, screaming my head off. I barely remember doing that to be perfectly honest, but she's told me a bunch of time. She's never known that a three year old child could be that scary." Yuffie laughed at the last sentence, but it didn't sound at all happy.

"She was pregnant when I left, and I really hope she had a son, to replace the one he lost."

"He's lost his daughter now hasn't he? There's really no difference no matter what the gender of her child is, either way they're replacing someone."

Her eyes went wide when he said that, she hadn't thought of it that way. Her gaze lingered downward, saddened. "I guess you're right."

Certainly not for the first time that night silence reigned supreme, until she tired of it and asked.

"You told me that night where I overheard that argument between you and Antoinette, that a stranger attacked both you and your wife, that's why she died. Have you found out why they did it?" She questioned, she didn't really care about the answer; she just didn't want to be surrounded by silence.

After a time Yuffie became sure that Vincent wouldn't answer, it was just as she gave up believing he would did he speak.

"She was a madwoman who saw herself as a queen who had the power to do whatever she wanted and get whatever she desired." Yuffie was taken aback severely by the mention that it had been a woman, but she didn't voice her thoughts and let him continue. "Unfortunately, her sights landed on me. She came to the house, at first she had been polite to a point, but regardless of gender I don't see the point in following a stranger when they out of nowhere ask you to come with them. I didn't trust them anyway, and I as always concerned for Lucrecia's safety and refused to leave her side. I couldn't have put my words in a worse way, and the stranger was angered immediately. She attacked us and before I knew it we were both a bloody mess, Lucrecia was unconscious. Scared for her life I carried her into town even with my injuries. They took her away from me as they bandaged me up. Nurses begged me to stay in my own room but I ignored theirs pleas and frantically searched for her. When I came upon her room I understood why: the shock had put her into premature labour, and she wasn't doing well. I stayed by the doorway frozen still, as she died in front of me."

Yuffie was like a statue as he told her this.

"The stranger has come up to me many times since then. But I've never said yes, I'll never say it. She's threatened to harm Antoinette and Tifa, but she never had done anything to them, not once. I think she's concluded that eventually I'll end them myself; even a monster like her sees me as a monster." He ended bitterly.

Yuffie was shaken by the story, "She's crazy! No she's beyond that even!" She exclaimed, stunned that someone could do something so horrible.

"A lot of things happened that day." Vincent muttered angrily, feeling the side of his neck, two small circular marks were visible under the gaps in his fingers

Yuffie bit her lip, realising that that woman had been the one to curse him.

* * *

"_You sure you're alright out here? You don't want to go back inside?" Vincent questioned Lucrecia, who was sitting in a chair out the front of the manor which was overlooking a field. It was winter but despite it the day was sunny and warm, the only thing to prove it wasn't summer was the small piles of snow dotted about. It was a peculiar yet pretty day outside and she'd wanted to go and see it._

"_Yes I'm, sure I don't want to go back inside; I'm fine." She giggled at her husband's concern. It'd happened only a week ago, that she had recovered from her sickness; it had just up and left like it'd never been there at all. Though that didn't stop him from worrying over her, he was scared she'd become sick again if she wasn't careful, she shared his fear, but didn't show it like he did. There was a feeling inside of her that felt if she believed it would come back it really would, so she did her best to keep the fears out of her head._

"_You don't have to constantly stay by my side you know. I'll be fine, it's not like if I'm out of your sight for more than five minutes the world will start ending." She laughed. Sure he was only being concerned for her health, and he had every right to be after the last couple months, but it did get suffocating some times. It wasn't as if she was annoyed by him, not at all, in fact she found it cute how protective he had always been. It was a shame that nobody else but her had realised he was like this, most mistook his character the moment they saw him, she wouldn't blame them too much going off his appearance, but it was still a royal shame._

"_Alright," He gave in, "But don't be out for too long, we don't know if you are completely out of the woods yet." Vincent went back inside after that, she smiled at his retreating form._

"_If it gets cold I'll definitely go back in don't you worry." She called to him, she saw him nod just before he shut the door behind him._

_Lucrecia remained outside for most the day, singing to herself softly. It was a lovely day out, she was glad her sickness had left her; otherwise she wouldn't have been able to watch this scene that was laid out before her now. She would have been locked up in her room, unable to get up out of bed whether she wanted to or not. Her husband looked worse than her at the moment, but maybe that's what sleeping in a chair for weeks gets you. He was more tired than her, he still wasn't able to sleep, unlike she who had slept for a whole day after her sickness had left, making her feel replenished after months of feverish attempts to sleep._

_When afternoon rolled around clouds gathered about, making the temperature drop dramatically. Knowing it was best to head back inside, Lucrecia picked herself up off the chair, as fast as her heavily pregnant self would allow. She made it to the door when she noticed in her peripheral vision a woman standing by the gate. She was a tall woman wearing a peculiar outfit. The top half was covered in a bizarre pattern of red and white while the bottom was a skirt short at the front and long behind her, forming into a train that would follow behind her when she walked. Though if her attire wasn't enough to make her an oddity it was her startling pale skin, sure this town didn't receive much sun but no one here was pale to that degree. She was white as snow._

_She eyed her with suspicion, and it only deepened when the woman called out to her, _

"_Hello there, you wouldn't mind letting me in would you?" Her voice was kind, but something else lingered in her tone, but it was too little to name._

_Lucrecia bit her lip; something about this stranger unnerved her. She turned her head to the door and yelled, "Vincent! Vincent!?"_

_It took a minute but her husband got to her fast enough, "Something hasn't gone wrong has it?" _

"_I don't know." He raised an eyebrow at her vague answer. _

"_You don't…" He stopped when she tilted her head to their left, towards the gate. He followed her line of sight to see an unfamiliar woman standing by it in strange clothes. _

"_Who are you?" He barked, the kindness she showed was fake, he could tell that from this distance._

"_Oh no one special, wouldn't mind letting me in now would you?"_

"_Who are you?" He repeated, she scowled; he didn't hear her but she muttered under her breath: 'You'll see soon enough'._

* * *

Yuffie covered her mouth as she yawned loudly.

"Perhaps you should sleep. You look tired." Vincent told her, despite looking far worse than she.

"You should look in a mirror."

"I know I'm tired. That doesn't stop me from commenting on others who are as well." She could've sworn there was slight annoyance in his tone.

"I guess I should go to bed," She yawned again. "I was talking too much to notice I was tired. You probably found that annoying." She added, muttering under her breath.

"It's fine, it's comforting not talking to a mad person for once. I didn't find it annoying." He said calmly, she grimaced as she realised that mad women were practically all he had to talk to.

"I'm sorry if I stopped you from sleeping I guess." She apologised as she stood up, "But the silence in this house is scary."

"I thought it was me you were scared of." He stated in an oddly calm voice for what he was saying.

"I don't know, it's hard to understand anything in this place, nothing is making sense anymore."

He didn't reply to this, so she decided he wasn't going to say more and walked steadily to the door.

"It's hard not to go mad in hell." He spoke as she grabbed the doorknob. She twisted it and as she exited responded with.

"I know."

She ran to Tifa's room and quietly placed the book she was supposed to give her on top of the other one already placed in the room and left without a sound so as to not wake up the sleeping maid. She found her way back to her own room and got on her nightgown before wrapping herself up in blankets and falling fast asleep.

It was getting increasingly hard to understand what she was supposed to be afraid of here.

The coming days followed a similar path after her conversation with the master. Of course her duties as a maid and her lessons with Tifa went about unchanged, besides Antoinette becoming increasingly harder to her deal with, but unlike before she found herself speaking with the master more and more. Maybe she was attempting to erase her fear of him; she wasn't quite so sure what the reason was, if there was one at all. Vincent didn't seem like a bad guy at all, he was very quiet and withdrawn but he had a good reason for each one of his problems. She could tell that Tifa would never begin to like him; too much had happened for her thoughts on him to change. Yuffie had tried at altering her thoughts, but all attempts were horrific failures.

She wasn't able to tell if Vincent was annoyed by all the times she went to talk to him, he didn't respond very much and often he went off into a trance. He'd always say he was just 'thinking'; when even she could tell there was more to it than just that. She believed he was caught up in his memories, it made sense, after all she had heard on many occasions Antoinette complaining about the man being too caught up in his past to remember she was there. How twisted that girl was never ceased to amaze her. Since she'd first overheard them arguing she'd overheard such an occasion another five times. Each time she would wish for it to stop, it wasn't like she would get anywhere by yelling at him like she was, plus it disrupted her sleep so much she had trouble keeping her eyes open some days.

* * *

"_Who are you!?" Vincent barked at the stranger on the other side of the gate. She smiled happily at him._

"_Oh really I'm no one special, my name isn't important at all! Now don't be silly, just let me in!" _

"_If you can't even tell me something as simple as your name, leave!" _

_The stranger scowled at him, but in an instant her expression returned to her sickenly sweet fake smile. "You don't have to be that mean you know?"_

"_Tell me who you are and what you want, or leave!"_

_Vincent didn't lighten up on her no matter how long she continued to beg. Her patience didn't last forever. The stranger jumped inhumanly high, clearing the gate with ease with an expertly done flip. She landed cat like on the ground, on their side of the fence. She lifted her head up and grinned impishly at them._

"_It's so cute you know?" She chuckled, before disappearing before their eyes. Before either could grasp what they had just seen she reappeared at their side, an angelic expression present. "You're so protective of her aren't you? I heard in town that her own family gave up on her, but you refused to believe she might die." She giggled, and turned her sights to Lucrecia, who shivered under her gaze and took a big step back._

"_Go away!" She screamed, frightened by this stranger. She was right to believe something wasn't right about her, seeing what she had just done only proved her thoughts correct._

"_And that's cute too," She ran an icy hand along Lucrecia's cheek. "Humans are so cute when they're scared don't you think?"_

_Vincent slapped her on the cheek and pushed her away from his wife. "Get away from her!"_

_The stranger stumbled over the ends of her dress and hit the ground hard. She grumbled, she'd done it on purpose to make them think they could stand a chance against her. It was likely they hadn't seen through it, she was a good actor when she wanted to be. "Now that's certainly mean!" She went on with the childish act, it'd probably get her nowhere in the end, but she chose to be stubborn._

"_Leave!" Vincent yelled at her loudly. _

"_I will, if you come with me." She giggled and smiled cheerfully at the two._

"_I'm not leaving here." He scowled at her; she was going nowhere when it came to convincing him._

"_Aww, you'll regret it you know." She grinned, her eyes turning dark. Lucrecia hid behind Vincent, this woman unnerved her greatly and she did not trust what she was about to do one bit._

"_Leave." She pouted childishly; he wasn't going to stop disagreeing with her._

"_This is your last chance."_

"_Leave!" He shouted far louder than before. She smiled darkly,_

"_If that's how you want it." She moved with speed too fast for one's eye to follow. In an instant she had grabbed Vincent by the collar and had roughly thrown him aside, and not a second later was upon Lucrecia, knocking the woman to the ground with a kick to the chest. Before Vincent could get up and do anything about it the stranger had aimed another three kicks divided amongst hitting her stomach and chest, sending Lucrecia into a fit of coughs._

"_Please…" She begged in a pained tone, simply falling to the ground as she had was already damaging to the baby, the stranger was only striving to worsen the possible damage. _

"_Too late, I gave you both the opportunity to take the offer did I not? This is your own fault!" She laughed maliciously before sending another kick to her stomach, this time making her cough up blood._

_Vincent jumped up off the ground, standing unsteady for a moment when the pain from the hit to the ground became apparent. His shoulder was in terrible pain as it'd taken the impact of the fall. Out of desperation he picked up the wooden chair left abandoned behind the two women and slammed it into the back of stranger's head. He could only hope it'd help, knowing well enough that this woman was surely not human, or not completely at least. He gripped his shoulder, as it flared up in pain in the aftermath of the swing. It was getting incredibly hard to ignore._

_The stranger didn't even twitch, as crazy as it seemed to those around her that having a chair thrown at her head had done nothing at all. She shook off the broken pieces of wood, and bushed the tiny bits and pieces from her outfit._

"_Really, that's the best you've got? Well it's the best a human could give without a gun I suppose. I guess I should be happy." She grinned as she twisted around to meet his gaze; he was scared but was stubborn enough not to show it. "Ahh, now for the fun part!" She giggled, leaving Lucrecia to wither in agony on the ground as she ambled over to Vincent, whose eyes narrowed as she got close._

_She took him by the throat and threw him to the ground again, only this time he landed on his back and not nearly as hard as the first time, as she wasn't aiming to injure him. She climbed up on top of him before he could even make an attempt at getting up._

"_Leave." He forced out, before he went into a coughing fit. The force he'd hit the ground with wasn't enough to cause outstanding pain but it was plenty enough to wind him._

"_Still? One would think you'd give up by now you know?"_

"_Why are you still keeping up that image?" He spat back._

"_Good point, there's no reason to at this point. I have what I want anyway." She laughed and smiled like a toddler who'd been giving a piece of delicious candy. _

"_Get off of me!" He grabbed hold of her hand and tried to pry her hand off if him, but to no avail._

"_What are you trying to accomplish?" She sighed, "You know, come with me now and I'll spare that woman. She's your wife isn't she? You want that right? She's pregnant too; oh it'd be a tragedy if she died!" She laughed, happily despite how disgusting her words truly were._

"_Get away!" Vincent yelled gripping her hand tight enough his nails cut into her skin. She flinched, her overconfidence had left her sure she'd be perfectly fine with dealing with them both, the pain though little came as a shock. Vincent took advantage of the second of distraction and ripped himself out of her grip, he ran over to Lucrecia's side. She was forcing herself up with great trouble, stuck coughing her lungs out. It was painfully clear that the stranger's earlier attack had left her in a bad state. He tried to help her up but her legs gave in and she fell; she was shaking terribly in a state of great fear._

_The other woman lifted herself up off the ground, dusting herself off, her expression fiery. "No one does that to me without punishment. I was hoping to do this after I'd killed her, but you leave me no choice. She was upon them in under a second, pushing Lucrecia to the ground where she could continue to suffer alone as the stranger wanted. She grabbed Vincent by the throat again, this time instead of a messed up sense of delight she showed anger, and nothing but. She shoved him against the wall, hard enough he coughed up blood. She grinned; her eyes were blazing with anger. _

"_This will only hurt for a little while, and then it'll be pleasure. You'll see." She tore the collar of his shirt before bringing her mouth next to his neck. Vincent didn't have time to question her for she quickly sunk her fangs into his neck. Fiery pain erupted all over him, his throat being the epicentre. The pain got so bad he soon became numb all over; it was a struggle to keep standing, his skin felt on fire and it felt like his organs were melting. She sucked his blood out from his neck, he could feel each drop leave him, hear each mouthful she swallowed. It became rhythmic, like a disturbing lullaby that sent a wave of sickness through him. She released him before she had too much, so that he remained plenty conscious but had lost enough that his sight would be so blurry that it'd be too hard to make sense of anything. _

_Vincent fell to the ground, unable to feel anything but numbing pain, unable to make sense of anything more than a foot in front of him. He shook uncontrollably, his body convulsing madly._

"_Wha…?" He wheezed, for what she had done, he shouldn't be in this state._

"_Don't worry; everything will be all over soon. She'll be out of the way, and I can have all the fun I want." She returned to Lucrecia, who'd been watching the scene absolutely petrified, glued to the spot with fear. The stranger kicked her in the face to knock her back down, before sending a bunch more at her stomach as she laughed with glee. Lucrecia coughed painfully and tried to get away but the stranger grabbed her by her hair and threw her about, the laughter became louder. _

"_Really what do you people think of me!? You really think you could get away! Ha! The very idea that a mere human could challenge me!"_

_She climbed on top of her and clawed and her chest and arms, leaving multiple bloody marks. And all Vincent could do was try to ignore the horrid pain running through his body. He was so numb he wasn't able to get up and save his wife from the torture no matter how badly he wanted to. He could barely make out the sight in front of him, it was no more than a blur of colours, but even he could tell it wasn't good. The screams only proved that further._

_Somewhere down the line Lucrecia lost consciousness, so the stranger lost interest in her and returned to Vincent. He was withering on the ground in utter agony as he was forced to suffer the torment. The burning pain refused to subside; he'd been reduced to screaming, frantically clawing at the ground below him._

"_Aww, does it hurt that much?" The stranger giggled, as she ran a hand along his cheek. He wracked it back angrily._

"_Fuck off!"_

"_Ha! That angry are we? How cute." She smiled, but he was unable to make it out, she was still too far away to see properly. "I'll leave you alone for now; I'll come back later after she's dead and the pain's gone. Maybe then my luck will be better." She strode off, clearing the gate the same way she had as when she'd entered. After what felt like a millennia of torture, the pain subsided enough that he could move, though his movements were troubled. He dragged himself over to Lucrecia, her whole body was drenched in blood; all his eyes could see was red. He felt her cheek; she was still warm; a good sign. Her chest was moving as well, so that showed she was breathing, but from the looks of things it came with difficulty. He was glad she was alive, he'd been so afraid that the stranger had already ended it all. _

"_Vin…cent…?" Her weak voice mumbled when he tried to pick her up._

"_Yes?"_

"_I'm cold…" She trailed off, she attempted to say more but nothing managed to come out in the end. He wiped a strand of hair from her bloody forehead. _

"_Don't worry; I'm going to get you some help." He lifted her up into his arms. It increased the pain he felt dramatically, but he didn't let her go, he couldn't leave her there when she was bleeding to death. _

* * *

Yuffie was busy assisting Tifa in the kitchen early in the morning. Tifa was making her hurry more than usual today, for the fact that they'd both awoken dreadfully late and the older of the two certainly didn't want to deal with a grouchy Antoinette, not like she'd ever seen her when she wasn't in a bad mood, but it was true that she was indeed getting worse.

Yuffie had to admit she was beginning to get confused, Tifa said nothing sides the orders she barked at her which did also happen to be few and far between, not enough to understand what on earth she was doing. Tifa was speaking to her less, far less; it was rare for her to say a word to her unless it was during a lesson or early in the morning when they were preparing breakfast. The younger had come to the idea that she was acting so withdrawn because she disliked how she was getting close to the master. As she knew Tifa would never trust him one tiny bit after all that had happened. She guessed she must be concerned for her, unable to stop worrying about something happening to her because of it. Plus she must also be greatly irritated that Yuffie on multiple occasions had gone and tried to make her believe otherwise about the master. Whether this was the truth was all speculation as Tifa held her tongue and made no comment besides that she would choose by herself what to think of him, it wasn't up to someone else to decide it for her.

So Yuffie had to put up with the silence and try to understand what was going on right now, as truth be told she had no idea what Tifa was telling her, all her words came out too quick for her to hear properly and when she asked her to repeat she would only yell at her to go get 'it', when she'd already told her she didn't know what 'it' was. So continuously she had to go about trying to find different utensils whose name resembled what Tifa had just shouted. It was incredibly confusing, but lucky enough they were close to being done by the time Antoinette entered the dining room. Though the teenager did not sit down at one end of the table, instead she stood by the door of the kitchen and glared daggers at Yuffie.

"Oi, maid, come over here!" She shouted angrily.

Both Tifa and Yuffie looked her way curiously, "Ah, who?" Yuffie questioned in a quiet voice. She looked angry, even by Antoinette standards.

As those words left her lips Antoinette stormed into the kitchen and grabbed her by her collar, "You; stupid moron!" She gritted through clenched teeth. Shocked, Yuffie was unprepared when the teenager began to pull her along and almost tripped over her feet, fortunately she didn't which meant she wouldn't have to be yelled at for it. It was certainly something that would agitate her.

Antoinette stopped in the middle of the dining room, before letting her go and going back to slam the door shut so Tifa couldn't watch. She twisted around and resumed glaring daggers at her.

"What…is it?" She stuttered, not out of fear but for forgetting how to say it in English. She hoped Antoinette wouldn't pick up on that, and she was sure she wouldn't since being as angry as she was she was bound to miss such little details.

"Stop talking with Papa!" She screamed, eyes lit alight with rage.

"Eh?" Yuffie mouthed in surprise, she was this angered over something so…she didn't bother to finish the thought. Initially she'd gone and thought it was something too small and simple to get angry over, but then of course she remembered Antoinette's twisted feelings for her father.

"Don't talk with Papa anymore; I know you two have been talking. So stop it!" She ordered furiously, with her hands on her hips.

"What's wrong?" She asked and got an answer immediately,

"I forbid it, it's enough what he's doing to that other stupid maid, he doesn't need someone else to distract him!" She shrieked, she looked as if she was going to say more but the words were caught in her throat. She lowered her head and continued in a frail voice, "If there's someone else, what chance…what chance does he have of seeing me?" As she said this Yuffie realised that the girl was crying. But the depressed way Antoinette was acting quickly ended as she screamed and picked up a chair by the table, subsequently throwing it against the wall where it broke into pieces.

She breathed harshly, behind her Yuffie could only stare, had it angered her this much? She bit her lip and gazed at the ground so she wouldn't have to look at the fuming Antoinette. She made for a sad sight. A part of her was completely against it, but she found herself talking before she was even aware of what on earth she was saying.

"You know…that whatever you do, he'll never want you the way you want him to? He can only see you as his daughter, nothing more, nothing less." Yuffie questioned; her tone shaky in fear of the reaction it would inevitably cause. Antoinette turned her head to look back at her, her eyes wide.

She slapped her before crying, "How dare you say that! How dare you say that! How…dare you." Antoinette's voice lowered in volume as she said it, before it was nothing but a sad whisper. A sob wracked her lungs as she fell to her knees, her head in her hands. She cried harder and crawled into a ball, pulling at her hair. "How…dare you." She shook her head and tried wiping away the tears. "Why? Why does everyone have to say that? It's hurts so much! So goddamn much! And the worst thing, the worst thing is I know they're right! I know he can't I know that! Do they think I'm stupid!? I'm not, I'm not!" Her voice rose to a scream, and tears trickled down her face the whole time as she cried uncontrollably.

"He'll never see me as I want him to! I know that, but I can't stop, I don't know how. What's wrong with me? What on earth is wrong with me? Why do I want that stupid man in such a way!?" She shook her head, screaming.

Against the smarter thing to do, Yuffie went over to her and hugged her. To be honest, she wasn't even sure why she did it, she expected every bit to be pushed away and yelled at by the sobbing teenager then slapped in the face. But she was perfectly fine with that. Only Antoinette didn't push her away, she hugged her back and dug her head into the crook of her neck, and cried.

"Tifa was making you breakfast you know? It should've been done a while ago.

"I don't want it."

"I thought you'd say that." Yuffie replied. She wasn't so sure why on earth she was actually trying to comfort a girl who had done nothing but go off her head at her without even once having a reason to. Maybe it was because she had a heart, but frankly, she doubted there even was a reason.

~.,.,.,.,.,.,.~

"I should've expected as much." Vincent sighed. Yuffie was talking with him again, she wasn't quite sure why and no longer remembered what started this conversation in the first place. It was becoming something normal for her now. She'd finished telling him about Antoinette's little fit she'd had this morning. He was hardly surprised to say the truth, but there wasn't really anything surprising about it. Antoinette was short tempered and obsessive when it came to him, it should've been obvious that she would react in a terrible way if she was to find out that one of the maids was making an attempt at talking with him, no matter what the reason. The girl had already made it clear long ago she greatly disliked both Tifa and Yuffie.

"I have no idea what made me comfort her, I was stuck wondering why the whole day, but I keep ending up at a dead end. She's always been so mean to me and Tifa; she's never made the attempt to be otherwise. I'm starting to think there's something wrong with me." Yuffie admitted when silence tried to gather.

"Maybe it's because you're sane." Vincent assumed. He seemed to be developing a habit of making odd comments like that. Yuffie had started thinking a while ago that in his head he was constantly comparing the two of them, possibly subconsciously. Personality wise and all they were very different indeed, but that wouldn't be what he was comparing, it was far more likely to be their different levels of sanity. Now it wasn't like he thought she was perfect when it came to her mental state, since she had made it apparent she was unable to act like what she considered as 'normal' because of what she had gone through before coming here and what she'd gone through since she had been here. She had her scars as well. But both knew whatever was wrong with her couldn't compare to all his problems. Despite not being perfectly sane herself because the others here were far worse than her it was like a peculiar innocence surrounded her. She was still human enough that she could do the things that no one else here would.

"It might be, I don't know. But I don't think Tifa would have reacted in the same way. She would've left the room. I think she might've been the type that would've tried to comfort her too once, but I think she's too far gone to dare the thought."

"She was nice when she started working here." Vincent said, not exactly as a reply but close to one. "That didn't last long of course. She had to toughen up so she could deal with Antoinette, but became a shell after I started hurting her."

Yuffie nodded, expecting it would've been something along those lines that had made Tifa the way she was. She wished she could've met her when she was the 'old' her. She had no chance of that of course, she couldn't go back in time and she was sure that the scars Tifa had were irreversible. It could be possible to make Antoinette calm down somewhat, but that itself would be near impossible. The only one who could possibly have any chance was Vincent, and Yuffie was dead sure it was something out of his abilities to do. Regardless of what Antoinette thought, truth be told she had never listened to anything her father had ever told her; that was what Yuffie begun believing since she started these talks. Vincent told her about past arguments he'd had with her, he would say one thing and she would hear another; that was just how it went.

Sad thing was even if someone was successful in calming Antoinette down; Tifa wouldn't change since it was incredibly likely that the master would still 'hurt' her. Both refused to name what he was doing during their conversations, it was a horrible thing and it wasn't something that Yuffie would want her mind to dwell on, especially from what had happened in the past. They knew what they were talking about, that was what mattered. He'd say he hated what he was doing, and that'd be true, but if he said he'd stop that'd be a lie. Words were just words in the end, and there was no point in saying them if he knew he didn't mean them. He was mad in the end; he knew and accepted everything that was going on in this life he couldn't stop.

"I don't want to become like that. I'm scared I will though." Yuffie admitted when silence had reigned supreme for longer than she liked. She'd gone off into her thoughts, Vincent clearly didn't mind her doing it in the middle of a conversation; it'd be hypocritical of him to go off at her for it anyway.

"You can always leave. You know a lot of English now right?" Though she did tend to speak in Wutanese during their conversations, he was correct.

"I know but where on earth am I meant to go? I don't want to just return home, not after all that's happened. It wouldn't feel right; it'd make me feel I've wasted a year of my life. It'll make me feel like absolutely everything that's happened since I left didn't mean anything; that it was all pointless and could've been avoided so easily!" She'd barely noticed but as she'd talked her voice had quickly risen to a yell.

Vincent didn't respond to her right away, he was either thinking of how to reply or wondering if there even was something that he could say after hearing that.

"You were with someone before you came here correct?" He said instead of replying. Yuffie didn't understand why he'd done it originally but quickly came to realise she must've put the thought in his head when she'd screamed about how going home would make her feel like everything had been pointless and so easily avoided.

She lowered her head dejectedly, half embarrassed by the question half saddened by it. "Yes, did that girl tell you?"

"Shelke mentioned to me the night she brought you here that you had been attacked by a group of men and that a young Wutanese boy had been protecting you. She said they killed him and would have you had she not stepped in."

"She butchered those men." Yuffie interjected.

"I'm aware. I know she's not as bad as me, but when she attacks she's vicious. It's quite rare for her to do that; I'd highly doubt she's done it again since you've been here. She holds herself back and ends up starving herself; it's a bad habit that has terrible consequences."

"Why are you saying any of this?" Yuffie questioned, still looking down.

"I'm still allowed to be curious aren't I? I wasn't aware there was a rule against that. Who was that boy you were with? You've never mentioned him once since you've been here."

There was a slightly annoyed tone in Vincent's voice, but it wasn't anything bad. She felt strange remembering the night she was taken here; it felt like it'd been a whole lifetime ago. "Hiroge, he used to be a servant, but he was my friend and the closest person to me. Closer than my family even. It's funny, I had a fiancé since I was ten but I never paid any attention to the guy, I spent all my time with Hiroge instead even though it made father get very angry with me."

"Fiancé?"

"I forgot the guy's name; I don't even think there's a point in mentioning him. I was the oldest simple as that. Arranged marriages are normal between nobles. I was supposed to get married when I was sixteen but me and Hiroge ran off instead."

"There was something between you two wasn't there?" Vincent questioned without much in his tone.

Yuffie blushed profusely and hid her face, "That's an awfully rude thing to presume you know!" She grumbled despite being embarrassed and not as annoyed as she made out to be.

Vincent didn't reply right away to her, maybe he hadn't understood how his question had set her off like that. He was incredibly tired after all; if she was to look up she'd see large purple patches under his eyes. It wasn't anything odd; he had always been half awake whenever they talked, his mind wasn't there some days. Tifa said he went through periods of staying awake for days at a time and periods of time where all he did was sleep. Obviously he was going through a period of staying awake and it was taking a heavy toll on his body.

When it was clear he had nothing to say in return, she asked instead of waiting for a response that would never come,

"Why did you ask that?" Yuffie frowned, she had a feeling she might know how he would answer, but wished he wouldn't in the way she was thinking.

"You weren't a virgin when you came here." Yes he answered exactly the way she thought he would, which in turn only managed to place a memory in her head she'd rather not remember at all. It brought along a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Judging from your story it made the most sense to me, that if anyone it would have been him." Vincent didn't actually voice what he meant, but it was still clear to the two he had gone and thought that it'd been Hiroge who had taken her.

"That's true," Yuffie mumbled her tone annoyed yet her face plainly showing embarrassment and nothing else. "But you still didn't have to say it."

She let out a large sigh and leaned back; she was a little glad he said nothing else about that subject, she knew that it'd embarrass her again which in turn would make her blush, and she really disliked the sensation of blushing.

Soon afterwards silence crept about until it covered the room. She hated the silence in this house, it felt like it had a real presence to her, and it always managed to creep her out. That was why she always tried to avoid it, even if it just led her to stupid meaningless conversations with someone who probably just wanted to sleep. At some point Yuffie couldn't take it anymore and bugged her mind to come up with something to say. All she got was a bunch of gibberish but being all she had she took the best one, deciding to talk about that. If nothing else at least the quietness would be gone.

She opened her mouth to say it but was stopped as Vincent beat her to it, only what he had chosen to say wasn't pointless and useless.

"Who are you?"

She tilted her head in confusion and raised an eyebrow, "Yu-"

"If you're only going to say 'Yuffie' and nothing else then you wouldn't have answered my question." He cut in much to her surprise.

She frowned; it was more than a little odd to randomly go ahead and say what he had just said, plus she still didn't understand properly what on earth he was going on about. "What do you mean exactly by 'who are you' then?"

"I asked 'who are you', not 'what's your name', I already know it if only your first name. It's strange for you to be here; clearly you are of at least noble heritage. And from whatever noble family you're from it must be an important one if you had had a fiancé since you were ten and your father had to marry immediately after his wife died."

Yuffie was taken aback by that; sure some of the things she said could easily be deemed as peculiar, but she hadn't expected she'd spark his curiosity even remotely or that he'd be able to figure out that she had to be at least from a very important noble family if what she said was indeed true. Vincent knew more than she had thought he did; she'd backed herself up into a corner by saying those things. Now she really regretted letting it all slip from her lips.

"It's not important where I'm from or who my parents are. That can all stay in the past, they're perfectly fine there." She muttered; her head turned to the side so she didn't have to look at him.

"Why are you so bothered by me asking then; if it's 'not important'?" She looked back at him, but didn't turn her head. She'd heard something in his voice she'd never heard in there before, certainly not coming from him, it'd almost sounded like amusement. Maybe it had been.

"Is it funny that it does bother me?"

"I never laughed." Vincent monotonously replied.

"I never said you did!" Yuffie hissed, before going quiet. She said nothing until she felt a heavy silence trying to cover the room again.

"Why do you want to know who I am?" She inquired; her tone calm. She whispered it, though she couldn't answer why she had.

"Maybe I'm curious. I'm sure that's something you've felt many times since coming here."

"It likes to bring bad luck."

"Bad luck likes to visit this place often; I hardly think it'd have anything to do with simple 'curiosity' of all things."

"I'm allowed to reckon it's my curiosity that brings bad luck if I so choose." Yuffie decided. "And is that really all the reason you have to want to know more about my past?"

"Curiosity is the reason for a lot of things; the world wouldn't be as it is if it didn't exist."

"Curiosity killed the cat." She said, as always not really sure as to why, it was simply the first thing that came to mind; still it didn't deter Vincent making a reply.

"Stupidity killed the cat, curiosity was blamed. I hardly think you have anything bad in your past besides having relations with a peasant even though you are of noble heritage, and that you've seen said peasant die before your eyes violently."

"Don't say it like that! You sound like my father, all he ever did was insult Hiroge even when he never did anything wrong besides what happened between us, and father is the only person who would see that as wrong."

Vincent said nothing; he just let her mumble to herself. She didn't realise it because she was in a mood but he was simply waiting for her to calm down. Conversations with angry people tended to go nowhere and it became a real annoyance.

"This is going to go in circles unless I say it isn't it?" Yuffie questioned, calmer than before but still not what could be considered calm. Again Vincent did not reply to her. If he did she would continue going in a circle. She didn't have anything to say, but she had no intentions of going to sleep and even less did she want things to go silent. She was treating it like silence was a monster come to kill her.

"Fine!" She groaned. "I'll tell you." From her tone it sounded like she was trying to make it sound like he had forced her to say it, when really all that had happened was a pointless conversation caused by her unreasonable hatred of silence.

"What's your full name?" He asked.

She raised an eyebrow, "Eh?"

"If you're going to start anywhere it's a good start, isn't it?"

"Right." Yuffie bit her tongue, she had agreed to say it of course, but that didn't stop it feeling weird. It'd been a long time since she'd had any need. "Kisaragi Yuffie Ohime-sama." By force of habit she added her title as well, only noticing she'd done it until it was too late.

"Ohime-sama?" She would've said the look on Vincent's face was surprise, but by personal opinion he didn't have enough emotion present to call it so. "Huh, Hime; that means Princess doesn't it? That's a surprise, even though I predicted you to be from a high-class noble family, looks like that was too low. The last thing I expected was for you to be a royal."

Yuffie pouted at the way he said it; she wasn't sure why, there wasn't really any problem with it, maybe she just didn't like to be called a royal.

"It would have created a lot of chaos, the princess running away with a lowly servant." When he said 'lowly servant' she knew of course he meant nothing by it, he was only saying what must have been her family and the noble's very thoughts on the matter. "It's a wonder you two never got caught. They would have sent people after you for sure."

"We couldn't have let them catch us!" Yuffie screamed, "They would have hurt Hiroge something bad, and that's if they let him live at all. They'd accuse him of kidnapping me no matter what I tried to say! Plus then they'd never trust me again and force me to never go outside ever again, to make it worse I'd be stuck with some random stranger I'd probably rather strangle than be with." She bit her tongue to shut herself up; she made a pained whimpering sound because of it. She'd almost lost it just then, she didn't even want to hear all that, even though she was the one who had said it.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I don't know…" She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. Why did she apologise? Why had she started yelling as she had? What was she even trying to say? Nothing was making sense anymore, nothing at all. She groaned and flopped back, crawling into a ball. She sobbed, only noticing she was crying when she spotted a dark puddle on the floor out of the corner of her eye. She wiped her face, but she didn't stop; she crawled into a smaller ball. "Why on earth am I crying?" She laughed shakily at herself.

Yuffie couldn't tell if this went on for only a few minutes, or hours. All she knew was that her head was spinning both from a terrible headache and an overwhelming feeling of drowsiness, both caused by the tears. She didn't notice when he had started, but eventually she came to notice Vincent brushing stray hairs away from her tear stained face. She gazed up at him for a moment, he looked concerned, she thought so at least, it was always had to tell since he never showed very much emotion. And like practically everything she had done since coming here, having no idea why on earth she was doing it, she picked herself up and wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her head onto his right shoulder as she cried. He didn't stop her, but he didn't respond to it either.

At some point Vincent rested his hand on her head, some attempt at comforting her possibly, she was too busy crying to figure it out. Though it was a response to what she was doing, it wasn't much of one; it gave her nothing on what he thought about her acting like this, though showed he certainly wasn't opposed to letting her let it out. It somewhat reminded her of the times Hiroge would hug her, she broke down a lot back home. She knew what she went through couldn't be considered bad, but the constant having to pretend to be someone she wasn't put so much pressure on her, someone who was never taught how to deal with it at all. Her personality refused to let her let others see her tears, only Hiroge was exempt; he helped her so much, always given her support when she needed it. She hadn't realised until this moment how bad she wanted to have a shoulder to cry on.

She tilted her head up, sight blurred with tears; she could barely make out Vincent despite being at such proximity. She balled her hands, clinging to his shirt. Of course he wasn't Hiroge, he was nothing like him, the only thing in common was their black hair, and that hardly counted. So why was it that her mind refused to let go? She shut her eyes, she didn't want to think about anything; not Hiroge, not no one, not anything. Why couldn't things just make sense? When did they stop making sense? When did she become unable to understand her own thoughts?

How much time had passed since this had started she wasn't sure of either, but it had to be some ungodly hour of the night. Yuffie hadn't any idea how long she had been staring at him either, all she knew was that at some point her tears had ceased. She altered her position, so that she was sitting up straighter without pulling away. She was almost level with him when she sat like this, as he was slouching. Her thoughts wouldn't stop; they ran around in her head at a constant speeding pace until it gave her a headache. She couldn't explain it herself, but somehow, her frantic thoughts gave her a most peculiar urge, that in her state she couldn't help but listen to. She leaned forward towards Vincent, and kissed him on the lips.

It lasted for a moment until she realised what she was doing, and pulled back hastily, her face a deep pink. Even he looked shocked.

"Ah! I'm sorry; I don't know what…I just did." Yuffie stumbled over her words. She didn't know what on earth she had been thinking. "I should…I should go!" She got up in a hurry, wanting to have as much distance between them as fast as possible. Only as she stood up he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down, catching her lips with his before wrapping his arms around her.

She was severely taken aback by it, for a moment she was scared he had lost himself to his other personality. But it soon occurred to her that that couldn't be it, if it'd been so he certainly wouldn't have kissed her, she was sure that other personality of his would have no interest in such a thing. He could call himself a monster, but in the end he was just as human as she was. A part of them must've been completely against it, but another part was all for it. Humans could be so weak at the worst of times.

She kissed him back just as strongly as he was kissing her, wrapping her arms around his neck. They released each other for air; anything that happened beyond this point even they wouldn't be able to understand.

He laid her down on the floor below them; she didn't have to ask any questions to be able to understand what was happening. Maybe she wanted it maybe she didn't, she didn't care even remotely. Vincent undid the buttons of her dress and she removed her arms from the dress as he pulled it down. Yuffie blushed as her bare chest was revealed, she knew he had seen it before from that horrible event a couple months back, but it didn't stop her from feeling embarrassed over it. He kissed her neck and she flushed a deeper shade of pink, he felt her newly exposed skin and her heart started to race; she'd felt this before, but it had been so long since then. He returned his lips to hers as his hands begun to become more active, touching every piece of skin he could reach.

When she started making pleasured sounds he took hold of her dress, currently at her hips, and pulled it down, taking it completely off her. She blushed but didn't cover herself. He held her close, running his hand down her length as they kissed once again. He took his lips away from hers and moved down, as she didn't look she didn't know what he was doing, but it became abundantly clear when she felt his tongue on her nipple. Her face turned bright red and she gasped in shock. She quickly became too embarrassed to look down as he continued to toy with her, kissing and touching everyplace he could until it sent her mad.

"Vincent…" She panted, her heart beat fast and her face was a deep shade of red. She couldn't even explain why this was happening; she was too confused to bother figuring out if she wanted to continue. Though she was sure they had gone too far to stop now.

"It'll be fine, don't worry." He whispered in her ear before removing his clothes, and following that her underwear. She covered her face with her hands in embarrassment, sure it wasn't her first time, but to her Vincent was still in many ways a stranger, she was allowed to feel such feelings. He gripped her hands and positioned them besides her head, before placing his hands either side of her and readying himself. She didn't let herself look down, she had always been so embarrassed looking down even when she'd been with Hiroge, and she was much more comfortable around him then she was with Vincent.

That night she was filled with the most peculiar sense of pleasure. They'd kept going until both couldn't take it anymore, and ended up as exhausted messes on the floor. Yuffie laid beside Vincent without saying a word, as neither felt an urge to talk. If she was to think back to this later in her life, she still wouldn't be able to answer why she'd done it, and she knew full well he'd be the same; but still, it wasn't something that bothered her, not at all.

* * *

_Vincent carried Lucrecia along the long path to town. His own injury felt like fire, the rest of his body didn't escape the terrible pain despite nothing having been dealt to it. Lucrecia was covered in countess scratches and bruises, none of which alone would be enough to harm her in any great way, but all together were more than enough to kill her. The worst of her injuries was on her shoulder, so he made sure to do his best to keep pressure on it with one of his hands, he was lucky enough that it was on a place he could still reach when she was in his arms. _

_As the town neared he began having trouble standing, he was an exhausted mess, and his legs were suffering from a terrible aching pain, a pain his shoulders mimicked from the task having to carry Lucrecia the distance he had. It didn't help that his own injury was so close, the pain he now felt was adding to the one from his wound and doubling the torment._

_Lucrecia had lost consciousness a while ago; she'd lost so much blood already. He was so close to the town by this point, but it was sending him mad pushing himself as he was. His body couldn't take it a second longer, it wanted this torture to end and it would make it so in this moment whether he wanted it to or not. From a mix of exhaustion and blood loss, he fainted, falling to the ground as blackness took over. _

_His was incredibly lucky he'd only been a few feet away from his destination; otherwise no one would have noticed either of them. And it would have been quite possible that they would have died then and there._

_~,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,~_

_Vincent awoke in a dark unfamiliar room, in a cold sweat. He'd been experiencing feverish nightmares ever since falling unconscious. In a daze he observed the room, the sun was no longer visible through the open window to his right, but it was still light out, signifying the sun had only just gone down. Unless he'd been unconscious for a full day, he shouldn't have been out for longer than an hour._

_He quickly recognised that he was in a hospital room, where he must have been taken after he and Lucrecia were found. In the drowsy state he was in it didn't hit him straight away that he was completely alone. He hadn't any idea where she was, and that was something he needed to find out. But for now his mind was more concerned about his surroundings and the dull ache in the back of his head. Vincent looked down to notice he had a bandage wrapped around his neck, which he should've expected to be there given his injury. The agonising pain he'd gone through before had dulled greatly, now he barely felt a thing. The only thing that bothered him now was the ache he felt in his head, he could tell it was unrelated from the wound. It was somewhat odd, especially since it worsened as someone passed by the room, and returned to normal as they walked further away. He also found that it was the younger ones that it was worst around, whereas when an elderly doctor passed by the pain was almost halved._

_He was certainly curious about what on earth was wrong with him at the moment, but now wasn't the time to let that be his main concern, he could find out about that later. For now he needed to find where Lucrecia was, he needed to know if she was alright._

_Vincent climbed out of the bed and crossed the room to the door, peaking outside it. The hallway was empty for the time being. He knew he wouldn't be allowed out seeing as he was still injured and had only just got here, but he doubted he could easily find her on his own. He'd need a nurse's help, he could only hope they wouldn't try and scold him saying that he must return to his room and rest. He knew it'd be the later, it was their job to be like that, and they weren't going to give him any special treatment. A part of him wanted to give up and wait, hoping that someone would be able to give him the information he wanted if he stayed and waited. He was a second away from giving in that to part, until he heard a woman's scream come from downstairs. He recognised it as Lucrecia's voice instantly. She was in pain, and a lot of it._

_He followed the sound of her pained screams down the hall and subsequently the staircase before rounding a corner and ending up in front of the room she was in. The door was open so he could see everything going on inside; multiple nurses were running around attending to her, there was one doctor in the room, having serious trouble concentrating from all the noise. It didn't take an idiot to realise what was going on, the shock had made her go into labour. She was eight and a half months in, so the time itself was nothing to worry about, but with those injuries who was to say what was going to happen to her?_

_She was in such incredible pain she didn't even notice him standing frozen at her doorway, all the hospital staff were too frantic to notice either. _

_He must have stood there for an hour, unable to do anything. He watched as the baby was born, crying as loud as Lucrecia had been screaming earlier, she was silent now since her throat was too sore to continue. Her breathing was troubled and she was covered in sweat and dry blood. She looked so weak and frail as the nurses left the room. There was nothing they could do for her; it was already too late to save her. It was a miracle in itself that the baby had survived._

_One of the nurses held the baby in her arms as she left the room, Vincent didn't look away from the sight in front of him, and thus didn't see where she took her. None on the nurses paid him any attention as they left; leaving to wherever there had to go now. The doctor was the last to leave; he gave him a sympathetic look and mouthed the words' I'm sorry' before leaving as everyone else had._

_Vincent stood there, unable to take his eyes away, unable to move, barely able to breathe. He watched as Lucrecia struggled to breathe until she could no longer manage even that. She was dead still on the bed, a sliver of a tear in the corner of her eye, reflecting the light from the window. It was at that moment, that he knew that her life was over. Horrified, he stumbled forward until her bed was right in front of him. He was unable to do anything but stare at her lifeless figure; bloodied and still. He stood there until his legs gave up on him and he fell to his knees, he broke down into tears, unable to stop. _

_~,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,~_

_After some time a doctor had noticed him by her bedside and forced him to leave. He complied without argument, and stumbled past him as he exited from the room. He was numb and lifeless, his face showing no emotion whatsoever. What was he supposed to think in this moment after all? Should he be angry? Should he be sad? It was too difficult to figure out. Tears wouldn't come out; he'd just cried enough to last a lifetime. He couldn't feel anything at the moment; his thoughts swirled endlessly around his head, wondering without answer the same questions over and over. How was he supposed to react? How was he supposed to feel? What was he to do now? Lucrecia was dead, the baby had survived, but he wasn't the type of person that could raise a child, certainly not by himself. It was possible he could make Lucrecia's remaining family raise the baby, but them agreeing to the idea was unlikely. They were all terrible people, it was amazing that she had come from such a place and still be the type of person she had been._

_Vincent was made to remain in the hospital room he'd originally woken up in for the next few days. His injury wasn't too bad; the problem was that it wasn't healing. He felt no pain, as he was numb both physically and mentally; but the hospital staff were severely concerned over the wound. They were doing all they could to treat it, but it all amounted to nothing in the end. He probably should've been concerned, but since his first day here his mind had stopped thinking or worrying. A nurse had told him a day ago it'd be fine for him to see the baby, but he hadn't moved an inch upon hearing the words, and neither did he intend to move. It'd only hurt, if he felt anything at all. Seeing her would do nothing to help him, not while he was in the state he was in. It was all made worse that it'd been a daughter; he didn't doubt that she'd grow up to resemble her deceased mother, something that could only bring more pain._

_About the only thing Vincent felt was the dull ache in the back of his head, which, was yet to fade like everything else already had. As it had the first day it worsened when people were near, and lessened as they went away. Each time a nurse or doctor came in to attend to him the pain became unbearable and it truly felt as if his blood was literally boiling. It was a sensation he'd never felt before, it was excruciatingly painful. His mind would whisper a million thoughts a minute, all speaking of madness in what seemed another language. The second he was alone, it ended, and he could calm down. About the only thing that went through his head these days was wonder over what on earth was causing the strange pain, but soon after he began to think about it the thoughts faded and he'd forget about it all until it happened again._

_He knew something was seriously wrong with him, something beyond what anyone here could be able to help with or understand. But he didn't think it would bring about anything bad to someone other than himself. That was of course, until a certain incident that would occur in the coming days._

_~,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,~_

_Vincent was deathly silent as a nurse was dropping off the food which was intended to be his dinner. As he had the day and the day before that he would not eat it, and it'd become cold and stay there until a nurse took it away with a frown. Only unlike the other two days his reasons this time were not even remotely connected to the depression he was suffering thanks to the recent events._

_The thoughts had returned, the ones that always would when someone entered the room, the ones that went hand in hand with the horrible unexplainable headache. Only this time he understood them, and this scared him something bad. They were something only a mad man would dare think, and they were indeed his own thoughts. His eyes watched the nurse closely, for a reason he was barely able to explain himself. He knew it wasn't lust, but something about the odd feeling didn't feel so different, though it wasn't the woman herself that he wanted, it could tell that at least. The thoughts running about in his head were beginning to become too much to take, they were making him having urges he wouldn't dare comply to, assenting to them would be giving away the last strip of sanity he had left. If only his entire mind agreed to what his sanity was trying to say, otherwise he would have been able to ignore the strange urge rising in him. Sadly, it won in the end._

_The nurse was saying something to him, but he wasn't listening, it was as if some other being had taken over, and it was interested in something far different to the words the woman was saying. She finished up and turned to leave, but Vincent's hand snapped up and grabbed onto her wrist. He saw her shocked expression from the corner of his eyes, as he was looking down. Of course her reaction wasn't his concern either, his concern was what he was about to do, and that was all that mattered. With strength he didn't even know he had he pulled her down, knocking her off her feet so she landed on his lap. She was about to question his actions but before any words left her open mouth he had sunk his fangs into her neck, ripping into the soft skin with far more force than needed, creating a ghastly wound. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her so tightly his nails dug into her skin was His sucked hard, drinking each drop of crimson blood that came forth from the wound. The bitter blood tasted like sweet nectar, it was bliss. He couldn't stop even though she was battering his shoulder and screaming for him to let her go._

_He let her go a second before he drunk every last drop, she was alive, but barely. She mouthed the word 'Why' before her eyes turned lifeless and her form still. Vincent gaped openly at the corpse in shock and terror. He'd done it without thinking, the thought had passed through his head and begged him to do it until he couldn't take it anymore and had to give in to the sick urge. He stared at his bloody hands, through the reflection in a mirror in the corner he could see that his face and torso were painted the same shade of crimson. Sickened he vomited over the side of the bed and tried to wipe away the blood only there was too much on him to simply get rid of like that. Terrified that someone would walk in and see the revolting scene inside; he ran out of the room and escaped the building through a back door. He could only hope he had not been spotted._

_~,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,~_

_In an alley way between the building adjacent to the hospital and the one after that did he hide, full of shock and fear at his own actions moments before. Vincent shook slightly; his thoughts running through his head at a speed he'd only recently thought possible. There was no argument that what he'd just done was something he could never do in is wildest dreams, and yet he'd gone and done it none the less. He blamed it on that mysterious woman that had attacked him and Lucrecia; she must've done something to him when she wounded him. After all the injury wasn't healing, that alone pointed to something unusual. The disturbing urges were another reason to point to her being the answer. Not once had he ever thought something even remotely similar until after they had been attacked. _

_What did that psycho want? She killed Lucrecia without a second thought and wounded him in a most peculiar way. She was a strange one to say the least, and she wanted him to go with her; where? Why? _

_He hadn't much time to ponder these ideas, for soon he heard footsteps coming down the alley to his position. At first he feared that it was someone from the hospital either come to take him back or had found the nurse's corpse and was here to accuse him of the killing. It made perfect sense, seeing as she was not only in his room but he himself was covered in blood. But it was not anyone from the hospital at all, why not even close. It was the very stranger who'd been on his mind a moment ago. She said nothing, but grinned impishly. Her attire was even more outrageous that her last had been; being a snow white dress in the same style of the last, short at the front and long at the back. Only now the back turned into a long train that was dragged along the ground as she walked, her hips were decorated with black angel wings, and the top part of the dress in the style of a corset was decorated in smaller versions of the black angel wings at her hips. Her shoes were white knee high boots, and her gloves were coloured ebony, ending beneath her shoulders._

"_Did you have fun?" She giggled; it was not forced, just fake._

"_Fun?" Vincent growled. He wanted her to leave. Screw asking her all for an answer to everything that happened, upon actually seeing her all he wanted was her to leave and that was it._

"_Why else would all that blood be on you? It's a delight isn't it? Tasting blood for the first time." At first her tone was cute and innocent, but deepened to one filled with sick joy._

_It was bliss. "It was disgusting." He answered despite his thoughts. It would give her such satisfaction to hear exactly what she wanted; in no way would he give it._

"_I know you're lying. What a silly man you are, I've lived a long time and changed so many, I know what it's like. The first time is wondrous bliss! Why sometimes the pleasure sends people mad and they go on a rampage! Taking life after life!" She smiled broadly, but quickly added with a frown. "Of course then I have to erase them, otherwise everyone else won't have any food."_

"_Food?" He questioned, she was sickening. He felt sick just being in her presence. "What do you mean food?" _

_She gasped, then grinned, then just laughed. "Why you must be kidding me? You mean to tell me you don't know why you had those thoughts earlier? Are you in that much disbelief or are you just dull?" _

_Vincent narrowed his gaze, scowling at her. He didn't respond, and after a while she realised he wasn't ever going to so she gave the answer without a fuss._

"_It's a survival instinct, no different from animals and the humans who don't have it all thrown at them." From the look on his face it was obvious that had not cleared it up for him. She knew he wasn't stupid, she really did, she understood that his current state had left it difficult to think straight. She grinned impishly like she had at the start. "Tell me, do you have any idea what you are?"_

"_What do you mean?" His eyes narrowed further. She giggled; he really was having trouble coming to terms with everything if he was as clueless as he seemed._

"_What do you think I mean? Think about what I did to you, how you've reacted to it. And everything I have said. Altogether what does it tell you? Come on, this is an easy one." Spoken as if she was an adult teaching a child; it amused her greatly, but only irritated him further._

_Vincent bit his lip; yes, all together he got one very obvious answer. But to even go and think it was obvious was crazy, much less believe it. It couldn't be true, that's just insane! _

_She smiled at his facial expression; it wasn't hard to guess what he was thinking. She was used to this happening, whenever they realised what was going on they went into a complete state of disbelief, of course that's for the ones who don't immediately accept it before going on a rampage._

"_Get it now?" She titled her head with a finger to her lip, mimicking childlike cuteness. _

"_Shut up!" Vincent yelled back. He understood it all, but he didn't want to. He wanted this to all be a dream and he would wake up and everything would be back to normal. Sadly, it was never a dream._

"_You're a vampire. Just like me, just like all the souls I've changed over the years. Why it's got to be a couple hundred by now." She revealed it like it was nothing. _

_He looked away from her, he didn't want to see her, he didn't want to hear her, and he didn't want to think about anything at all. He wanted it to be a dream, he needed it to be._

"_You can never be normal now, so you may as well come with me. I might let you keep that child if I'm feeling generous. It's a shame she didn't die with her mother to be perfectly honest. How did I not kill her after what I did to her mother anyway? What a terrible miracle she is!" The woman grumbled, but instantly got over it. "Though if she stayed with you I have a feeling that when she is older one of the others is going to steal her when you're not looking and have some fun with her before killing her. Ooh how fun."_

"_Shut up!" Vincent shouted furiously at her. But she ignored it and kept going._

"_You know something interesting, look at your wound! It should be completely healed, well besides my bite marks; they'll be there forever as a lovely reminder. It's something that happens after the first kill, and if you'd never drunk any blood then it would never have healed."_

"_Shut up! He repeated himself only to be ignored again. _

"_You should come with me now you know, before they find the body. It's in your room, and here you are covered with blood. We can leave before you're spotted, unless you're fine with getting into the trouble involved with being accused of murder. Humans are so silly; they always get so worked up by something so trivial. That baby can be raised by relatives, it's not like she matters." _

"_Shut up!" Vincent screamed. And finally was noticed by the stranger, who flinched at the loudness of his voice. She complained under her breath._

"_Leave." He ordered her._

"_Really now? Is that so bright to ignore my offer? With you in this state?"_

"_I don't care, but I will not listen to a word of yours. That I know." He pushed past her, knocking her off her feet and slamming her into the wall. _

_She groaned loudly. "What about that child, do you honestly expect that you can raise her with you as you are?"_

"_I don't know, but she has nothing else. Lucrecia's family will not accept to raise her when they bare so much hatred towards me."_

"_You have got to be crazy. You'll snap one day, and then you'll come to me." She laughed happily._

"_That day will never come. I can promise that." With that he turned the corner and disappeared from her sight. She frowned, but did not go after him._

_What she said would happen did not; he was not accused of the murder; though it wasn't anything good none the less. A nurse had found the body, but had told a rare few about it, it was all swept under the rug. They believed him insane and kept it at that. Why ever they never did anything about the murder was beyond him. Eventually he was allowed to leave, with his baby daughter. Whatever he was to do from here on in, even he didn't know._

* * *

The two had remained in perfect silence for quite a time, they saw no reason to speak, nor move from their spot. Yuffie found she wasn't even remotely bothered by their proximity, though on account of what had just occurred this was not news to her. The open window on the far wall let in cool night air, but the body heat she felt from him was more than enough to keep her warm, even with her clothes discarded at their side. It was funny, she had always tried to avoid being without sound in this place, for the silence held a heavy presence that made her uneasy. But right now, though that same silence lingered about, she felt no dark presence from it; it was just like it had been back home, peaceful serenity. This she enjoyed greatly and wished deeply for it not to end.

After some time, she finally began to gather up her clothes and put them back on. Seeing this Vincent did the same. And even as she left the room they did not utter a single word, as still, they saw no reason. Yuffie made her way back to her room, uninterrupted by anyone else. She was glad in a way for that, no one would be able to question her on what they'd been doing for all that time. When she got to her room however, she was delivered a shock that brought fear back into her system.

A stranger wearing peculiar garments was sitting cross-legged on her windowsill, smiling impishly at her.

* * *

**Took me two weeks to write, though I finished it two weeks ago (My sis took a while getting the DOCX back to me). I hoped you enjoy. This killed me.**

**Reviews shall be much apreciated .**

**Jya ne,**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


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